Items related to Habits of the House
Synopsis
October 1899: all is not well at No. 17 Belgrave Square, London residence of the Earl of Dilberne when not ensconced in his ancestral seat in the Hampshire Hills. It is 7am and someone is pounding on the front door and as neither the butler nor the footman can be found, the poor Earl has been forced to open the front door to a man who shouldn't be using it. Worse, a man he is £30,000 in debt to, and, worse still, a man who has come to announce that the Earl's gold mine in South Africa has been destroyed by the Boers.
Before it gets any better for the Earl, its going to get even worse: His wife is going to find out about his ex-mistress - the one he passed on to his son, Walter (who doesn't know her provenance, nor that said mistress is two-timing him with an old rival from Eton). His daughter Rosina, conscientious objector to The Season, member of the Fabian Society (it is well known in Society that her radical opinions exasperated her choleric grandfather to death) is going to report Walter to the police for keeping a brothel. And the energetic Tessa O'Brien, wife of a Chicago Meat Baron, is going to arrive in town looking for a husband for her disgraced daughter Minne.
Meanwhile, below stairs, the servants dust, set fires, scrub floors, dream of freedom from service, steam open letters, take in waifs and strays from the streets, discuss their employer's sex lives, occasionally participate in them and prepare for the 11-course banquet the Earl will be giving for the Prince of Wales on the 7 December...
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
Wickedly stylish... bursting with intelligence and fire Source: Daily Telegraph
There's simply no touching Weldon as a writer Source: Observer
Weldon can't write a boring sentence Source: Sunday Times
Weldon crafts beautiful characters and wonderful stories Source: Sunday Express
Sparkles with wit and acute observation Source: Guardian
One of the most prolific, entertaining and provocative of contemporary women writers Source: Sunday Telegraph
Weldon, like Dickens, can have her readers perched on the edge of their chairs with excitement by the end of the first page and hold them there riveted until the last words Source: Evening Standard
Sinister, clever, funny... Why hasn't she been made a Dame? Source: Independent
From the Author
FAY WELDON was brought up in New Zealand. Writer of the first ever episode of Upstairs, Downstairs and current Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, Weldon is best known for her novels Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and Worst Fears. In 2001 she was awarded a CBE. She lives on a hilltop in Dorset with her husband.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherCorvus
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 0857892428
- ISBN 13 9780857892423
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages320
- Rating
(No Available Copies)
Search Books: Create a WantIf you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!
Create a Want
