Upstairs & Downstairs
My Life In Service as a Lady's Maid
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Narrated by:
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Helen Lloyd
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By:
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Hilda Newman
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Tim Tate
About this listen
The year was 1935: the twilight of the English aristocracy. It was a time of wealth and glamour; of lavish balls and evening gowns; of tiaras and a coronation. As personal maid to Lady Coventry, Hilda Newman had a unique insight into the leisured life of one of Britain's most noble families. In her fascinating memoir of life upstairs and down, Hilda takes us back to this period between the wars; a gilded era which would soon be dramatically changed by the Second World War.
Transplanted from a tiny house with no bath or hot water to an 18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion, Hilda's life changed beyond recognition. But in a time when the very foundations of British society were being shaken to their core, the luxurious life of the country nobility couldn't last. The Second World War brought more turbulence with it, and Croome Court, where Hilda had lived and worked, became a haven for the Dutch Royal Family fleeing Nazi occupation, whilst also home to a top-secret RAF base. The lavish banquets and decadent parties had become a thing of the past.
Hilda's story takes us back to a bygone era, showing us what life was really like in England's classic country manors of old - and uncovers the real lives of the people who occupied them, from wealthy lord to lowly servant.
©2019 Martyn Newman obo Hilda Newman (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story
Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the fifth Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact.
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Horrible Reading
- By Teddy hall on 03-27-20
By: Anne Glenconner
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Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
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The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
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Queen of the Mersey
- By: Maureen Lee
- Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Queenie is only 14 and has been deserted by her mother. Set in Liverpool and Wales at the outbreak of World War II, this story explores themes of female friendship and betrayal from the perspective of a group of women of widely different ages.
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Entertaining
- By W on 05-27-08
By: Maureen Lee
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Decline and Fall
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze.
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Black Humor, Satire, and the Absurd
- By Gypsi on 06-09-18
By: Evelyn Waugh
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What Once Was True
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Caroline Lennon
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Robinswood, Co. Waterford, 1939. The once grand house is home to two very different families. Despite delusions of grandeur, Lord and Lady Kenefick and their adult children live a life of decayed opulence as the money needed to keep such a large house and grounds ever dwindles. Meanwhile, the Murphy family, Dermot, Isabella and their three almost grown-up girls, live and work on the estate and do their best to keep everything running smoothly.
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I throughly enjoyed every minute of this book
- By paula wright on 09-16-20
By: Jean Grainger
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Cashelmara
- By: Susan Howatch
- Narrated by: Gary Furlong, Carly Robins
- Length: 27 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When Edward de Salis travels to America after the death of his first wife, he is astonished to find himself falling in love with Marguerite, a young woman many years his junior. Full of hope for the future, he returns to his Irish estate, Cashelmara, but in 19th-century Ireland - a country racked by poverty and famine - his family eventually becomes trapped in a sinister spiral of violence that Edward could never have foreseen.
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Wonderful Story
- By Ann Marie Taylor on 07-04-20
By: Susan Howatch
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The Diary of a Nobody
- By: George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The Diary of Nobody (1892) created a cultural icon, an English archetype. Anxious, accident-prone, occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to epitomize English suburban life. His diary chronicles encounters with difficult tradesmen, the delights of home improvements, small parties, minor embarrassments, and problems with his troublesome son. The suburban world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and its essential decency.
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Hilarious and Suprebly Read
- By Virginia Waldron on 10-15-08
By: George Grossmith, and others
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Put Out More Flags
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life - his sister, his mother, and his mistress. When Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and sets forth to enjoy his finest hour - as a war hero. Basil's instincts for self-preservation come to the fore as he insinuates himself into the Ministry of Information and a little-known section of Military Security.
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Wickedly Funny
- By Chelz on 07-25-19
By: Evelyn Waugh
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The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
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Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
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High Rising
- A Virago Modern Classic
- By: Angela Thirkell, Alexander McCall Smith - introduction
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.
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Beginning of a journey
- By Jerri C on 11-04-16
By: Angela Thirkell, and others
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Black Diamonds
- The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England
- By: Catherine Bailey
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in 20th-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today's money - a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it?
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Could use a good editor...
- By Phyllis on 04-30-18
By: Catherine Bailey
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The Musgraves
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The tangled destinies of an unusual family are played out against the backdrop of the English countryside where two pretty sisters and a beautiful widow take centre stage in a drama of dangerous flirtation and backstairs gossip. Esther Musgrave, an attractive widow, has her hands full trying to keep her energetic family together – and on speaking terms! Her three daughters, prickly Delia, sensible Meg and carefree Rose, mean everything to her, especially since the death of her husband, Charles.
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Sibling rivaly
- By Jerri C on 08-01-11
By: D. E. Stevenson
What listeners say about Upstairs & Downstairs
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M. Arnelöf
- 12-04-21
Lovely & informative
This book was a bliss to listen to.
The only thing I could say was a minus is that it was far too short.
I am sure this lady's lifes story had SO much more that could have been put in.
But I'm happy she wrote it.
What a lovely and impotant piece of history!
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- Marcus Ray Dillon
- 03-22-22
An appreciative listener.
This audio book was well told and hilarious to boot! The British has a sense of humor that leaves me in stitches.
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- Aimee
- 08-05-22
Enjoyable vacation listen
This was a read book to listen to while in a short vacation. Historical aspects are interesting.
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- Mary
- 08-16-22
interesting but judgy
It is interesting to read and you really feel compassion for the young girl who becomes a lady's maid.
One of the themes seems to be how the aristocracy holds themselves above their moral betters, the working class from which she emerged.
The other theme of the book seems to be how much better than modern youngsters the young people of the narrator's generation were.
And the third seems to be a bit of self-pity for what she experienced.
Interesting to hear; but it does seem the narrator seems more snobby than the aristocracy she serves.
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- Tia Noller
- 12-10-21
Short and sweet but very personal story.
This story is told by a 100 year old woman who lived through both the 1st and 2nd World War And who served for a short time as a lady's maid to one of the aristocracy of the time period. While not quite as dramatic as Downton Abbey or the series upstairs downstairs, It does serve to prove prove some of the things we have seen are in fact true. This is a Very sweet little story and I enjoyed listening to it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-24-21
It’s like gone with the wind except it’s gone with the war
This book was well written and well delivered and well researched I recommend it to other readers
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- Lynne Hammar
- 01-09-22
Immersive historical biography
A well-performed memoir of a young working-class woman's years in service as a lady's maid.
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- Alex Szerzinski
- 08-20-22
Pleasant story
Really enjoyed this. Lots of interesting details to understand society and culture at the time. Storyline is simple, just a memoir with no complex plot, but I enjoyed every minute.
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- Pamela B. Wier
- 03-08-22
Wonderful remembrance!
I do love this type of story!
This one was a little slow at first, but well done when getting into it!
I can't pretend to be an author myself, so my opinion is only a reader's.
The narrator, Helen Lloyd is one of my very favorites! ❤️
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- Eli
- 06-19-22
With quiet charm
I enjoyed this book very much. It has some unobtrusive, quiet charm. I also liked the valves that governed narrator's life. I started listening because I'm a fan of Downton Abbey, but highly recommend it to everybody.
An excellent performance, too.
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