Perfect Books for Fans of Downtown Abbey

Book Summary

The Duke of Brightshire has just arrived in Kent, England, with his new American bride. Overnight, Emma Brinkman went from hardworking Colorado rancher to duchess, and she is now expected to act with aristocratic civility. It doesn’t take long for her to become homesick and tired of feeling like she is constantly being watched.

Her scullery maid, Charlotte, quickly becomes her closest confidante. Charlotte, an orphan, longs for the luxuries of titled life. When one of the Duke’s handsome cousins takes notice of Charlotte, gossip floods the castle kitchen.

Book Summary

Sara was the head housekeeper at a posh London hotel in 1884. Based on her background, this is more than she ever expected and the highest station she could rise to in life. But then she meets an American visitor, Theodore Camden. He is building the most luxurious residential building in New York, The Dakota, and invites her to come to manage the property. The job brings her to highs and lows she never could have expected.

Sara’s story is told in conjunction with a 1985 storyline of Bailey Camden, who is returning from rehab and gets the opportunity to start fresh with a job overseeing the renovation of an apartment in The Dakota.

The novel goes back and forth between these perspectives, weaving together a story of love, betrayal, and the quest for success within one of NYC’s most famous residences.

Book Summary

The main character, Stevens, is the long-time butler of Darlington Hall. It’s 1956, and in the years since the war, the staff has been dramatically reduced. When Lord Darlington passes away, and an American, Mr. Farraday, buys the estate, there are even more changes. When Mr. Farraday returns to the United States for a trip, he suggests that Stevens take his own journey. 

Stevens only agrees once he realizes he can visit his secret love, the former head housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Throughout his journey, he begins to find out who he is outside of his role as a butler. If your favorite character was Mr. Carson, this book is for you!

Book Summary

Before Julian Fellowes created Downton Abbey, his debut novel Snobs also looked at class differences. 

Unlike Downton Abbey, Snobs is set in current-day London and pokes some fun at the British upper class and aristocracy while also giving you a glimpse into their world.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of Mrs. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Astor’s notorious battle for control of New York society during the Gilded Age. It begins in 1876 New York, with Alva Vanderbilt’s experiences as she enters society after marrying into a wealthy family.

She has no idea how poorly she’ll be treated for being “new money” instead of “old money” by people like Caroline Astor. However, Alva isn’t one to give up. When they don’t welcome her into their society, she begins to build her own.

Social Graces covers thirty years of the social feud between Vanderbilt and Astor and is based on true events.

Book Summary

Initially published in 1945, Brideshead Revisited is a tragicomedy set before WW2. It’s an indulgent look at the life of Charles Ryder, who was stationed at Brideshead, the manor of an aristocratic family. In the book, Ryder looks back on how his life has been intertwined with each member of the family, including their loss of privilege as the world evolves.

Book Summary

The Gown takes us inside the workrooms of the famed fashion house of Norman Harnell, where one of the most famous wedding gowns in history was created for Princess Elizabeth. Here we meet Ann and Miriam, two embroiderers surviving on limited wages and food ration coupons after WW2. While they wonder how to stretch their food supply, they’re also working on the elaborate wedding gown for Princess Elizabeth during the day.

Seventy years later, Heather seeks to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers left behind by her late grandmother, who never spoke of her life in Britain.

Book Summary

Set in the American South of the 1890s, this YA social drama tells the story of 17-year-old Jo Kaun. By day, she works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the richest men in Atlanta, Georgia, but by night she is the author of a newspaper advice column for genteel Southern ladies.

Writing under the pseudonym “Dear Miss Sweetie,” she uses her popular column to address some of society’s ills. But when she dares to challenge ideas of race and gender, she is unprepared for the backlash she faces. Jo Kaun struggles to keep her identity a secret, while also searching out the truth about her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby.

Book Summary

In 1922, Lady Evelyn Herbert became the first person to step into the tomb of Tutankhamun. She was an unlikely archaeologist. Not only was she female, but she also lived in Highclere Castle, the real-life Downton Abbey. Instead of accepting her expected life of a prestigious marriage and society life, she wanted to work with her father on the hunt for Tutankhamun in Egypt. While she was thrilled when they were successful, “the curse of Tutankhamun” seemed to be true. Her life was impacted by a series of tragedies. 

Fifty years later, an Egyptian academic came to ask questions about what happened in the tomb, which launched a new chain of unfortunate events.

Book Summary

When Jende and his wife, Neni, immigrate to the US from Cameroon, they expect to work hard but be rewarded for that work with a better life than they left behind. In 2007, he began working as a chauffeur for Clark, a Lehman Brothers executive who appears to have achieved the American Dream.

Jende is an exceptional employee, and his dedication leads to his wife’s job working for Clark’s family at their Hamptons house. With two incomes, the family can finally begin to see the possibility of their brave move to America paying off.

However, all is not as it seems with their employers. As they learn more secrets, the world is about to learn some secrets as well. Lehman Brothers is collapsing, and Jende’s job is no longer certain. He needs this job to get his permanent green card, so their entire future is at risk.

Book Summary

Head back to 1914 and join this interesting cast of characters in the coastal town of Rye, England. Medical student Hugh visits his aunt Agatha and her husband, who works in the Foreign Office. He isn’t too worried about the building tension over the Balkans. The summer is too beautiful for them to be concerned. 

Mix in the new, attractive Latin teacher Beatrice, who is mourning the loss of her father (and his financial support). While everyone is distracted with their own problems and the summer creeps closer to fall, they have no idea how much their lives are about to change.

Book Summary

This novel reimagines Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the servant’s point of view. This “belowstairs” retelling takes us beyond the drawing rooms and places at center stage the maid, butler, housekeeper, and footmen of the Bennet’s Longbourn estate. 

In addition to depicting the daily particulars of keeping the house, the author has created a very vivid and authentic world in which there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs as there is upstairs.

Book Summary

Skeeter has returned home from college to her family’s cotton plantation, where, despite trying to act like a proper Southern lady, she seems to disappoint her mother constantly. 

Her true ambition, however, is to be a writer. The only job she’s able to find is one she is completely unqualified for – writing a housekeeping advice column for the local paper. Having virtually no experience of her own with housekeeping, Skeeter turns to her friend’s maid, the very poised Aibileen, for help. 

As she gets to know Aibileen and Aibileen’s friend, the very sassy Minny, more intimately, Skeeter is inspired to help tell their stories, and she pitches the idea to write the narratives of 12 Black maids – a very risky project for all of them.

Book Summary

This YA historical romance is set in 1920s Wiltshire, England. After the Russian Revolution turns her world upside down, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England with nothing. 

She is forced to hide her aristocratic background and takes a job as a servant. Desperate to keep her past a secret, she is overwhelmed by her new duties but finds herself attracted to the handsome Earl of the house. He appears to be falling for her as well, but there’s also the matter of his nasty fiancée.

Book Summary

Set just after WW1 in post-Edwardian England, In A Field of Blue is an interesting glimpse into a family whose wealth is running out as they deal with the aftermath of the war.

Four years after Rudy lost his eldest brother, a British soldier, to the battlefields of France, Rudy’s family is still torn apart by grief and secrets.

When Mariette arrives, claiming to be Edgar’s widow and the mother of his child, Rudy urges her to stay in hopes that she’ll shed light on unanswered questions. But Mariette’s revelations lead to more questions than answers as suspicions threaten to further divide Rudy’s family. Rudy sets out on a quest for the truth that takes him from England to France and beyond.

Book Summary

In the Gilded Age, wealthy New York families like the Vanderbilts and Astors escaped the heat of summer in Manhattan by traveling to Newport for the season. Pearl is the teen daughter of one of these families, but yearns for a different life than her social-climbing mom expects.

Ginerva is also in Newport for the summer, but she’s a new immigrant from Italy and joins the household as a servant and seamstress. Pearl and Ginerva become fast friends, but Pearl can’t let her family know she’s befriended a member of the staff. The realities of their approaching adulthood became real when Pearl accepts a “suitable” marriage proposal that will pull her further into society life.

Book Summary

Major Heathcliff Lennox is a WWI veteran pilot visiting his uncle’s manor for Christmas when he finds himself suspected of murder. When a snowstorm prevents the police from investigating, Lennox does some sleuthing to discover the real murderer.

Book Summary

Ever wonder about the real family that lives in Highclere Castle? Lady Fiona, the current 8th Countess of Carnarvon, wrote this book in 2011. It focuses on Lady Almina, who began life as an illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild in America.

Almina married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1895, and they lived in Highclere Castle. From starting hospitals to her husband’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the couple’s adventures, generosity, and legacy fill this book about the “real Downton Abbey.”

Book Summary

From the 19th to the mid-20th-century, the most important and professional job that an uneducated English woman could aspire to was housekeeper for a grand English country house. But despite the very important – and often powerful – role they played in society, very little was known about these women and their real day-to-day lives. 

The book follows the lives of five different women who ran country houses throughout England. The author researched the lives of these often-overlooked vital parts of English society and reconstructed their stories via diaries, shopping lists, letters, and more.

From pregnancy and court cases, to love affairs and scandals, and from the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the roaring Twenties and liberated Sixties, you’ll hear their stories of the women who really ran the English county houses.

Book Summary

Author J.B. West spent almost three decades as the Chief Usher at the White House, making him the coordinator of both lavish functions and daily life for six different presidents and their families. His tenure included the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson families, plus the first six weeks of Nixon’s first term.

His memoir is full of anecdotes and history from behind closed doors. In this era of partisan politics, it’s refreshing to see the mutual respect throughout changing leadership during his years on the job.

Book Summary

Powell began in the 1920s as a kitchen maid, then lied about her age to secure a position as a cook. Throughout the book, she minces no words about the fact that life in service was not enjoyable, and you’ll feel her bitterness and anger about many of the circumstances she endured. But this book is also filled with lots of juicy gossip, and you’ll find yourself identifying her tales with the characters you know and love (or love to hate) from the show.

Book Summary

This memoir is described as HGTV meets Downton Abbey. As a child, Hopwood DePree was told that he was named after an ancestor. The original Hopwood left his family’s castle to come to America in the 1700s. 

As an adult, Hopwood became a Hollywood actor and producer with little connection to his English roots. One night, after some wine and searching on Ancestry.com, he came across a photograph of a grand, 600-year-old English estate near Manchester called Hopwood Hall. He soon discovered that the 60-room manor on 5,000 acres was indeed his family’s ancestral home. The Hopwood family lived in the manor for five centuries, but the last known remaining male heirs were killed in World War I. Since that time, the home had fallen into disrepair.

As the sole surviving family member, DuPree decided to leave his life in LA behind to save Hopwood Hall. Despite lacking any construction skills, he was undeterred by the trees growing in the chimney and the holes in the roof. He affectionately coined the term “Downton Shabby” to describe the state of ruin that the home was in, and he called upon an eclectic group of neighbors to help him save the castle.

While this sounds like the plot of a movie, it’s a true story of one man’s ultimate DIY adventure, and, as avid DIY’ers ourselves, we both look forward to reading it!