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The Real Life Downton Abbey: How Life Was Really Lived in Stately Homes a Century Ago [Paperback]

Jacky Hyams
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 14.95
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Book Description

Jan 6 2012
Fans of Julian Fellowes' hit show can step back 100 years to the world of the pampered, privileged upper classes and take a look at exactly what goes on behind the magisterial doors of their favorite stately home
 
Using the characters and setting of the popular television show as a point of reference for the reader, this is a closer look at the Edwardian period. They were the super rich of their times, pampered beyond belief—the early 20th century Edwardian gentry, who lived like superstars, their every desire or need catered to by an army of butlers, servants, footmen, housekeepers, and grooms. Class, money, inheritance, luxury, and snobbery dominated every aspect of the lives of the upper crust Edwardian family. While below stairs the staff inhabited a completely different world, their very lives dependent on servicing the rich, pandering to their masters' every whim, and rubbing shoulders with wealth and privilege. While privy to the most intimate and darkest secrets of their masters, they faced ruin and shame if they ventured to make the smallest step outside the boundaries of their class-ridden world. From manners and morals to etiquette and style, this book opens the doors to the reality of the era behind TV's favorite stately home.

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The Real Life Downton Abbey: How Life Was Really Lived in Stately Homes a Century Ago + Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey + The World of Downton Abbey
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Product Description

About the Author

Jacky Hyams is a freelance journalist and editor who regularly writes for the Evening Standard.

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Customer Reviews

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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting read April 4 2013
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a Downton Abbey watcher this book is a great compliment to the series
Lots of background on the lives & customs of the day . i enjoyed very much
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Thank you to Elizabeth D Dec 31 2012
By Vera
Format:Paperback
Thank you Elizabeth D, I was about to purchase Real Life Downton Abbey but after reading your review, I decided against doing so... All of your comments are more than valid. Happy New Year.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.9 out of 5 stars  42 reviews
96 of 113 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars It's Ok but It Has Issues. May 19 2012
By ElizabethD - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The author of The Real Life Downton Abbey, Jacky Hyams, makes two mistakes in this book.

One, the author refers to Camilla Parker Bowles as the Princess of Wales. While the Duchess of Cornwall is indeed married to Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, she is not the Princess of Wales simply because she is married to him. Because of intense support and love for Diana, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's participation in the demise of the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, public sentiment was grossly against Camilla being named Princess of Wales. Even though the Duchess and Prince Charles were married some years after Diana's death, public sentiment remained high in support of Diana's memory. Camilla was created Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cornwall, by Queen Elizabeth II upon her marriage to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales.

The second blunder Hyams makes is the unmistakable envy in her writing tone towards those she continuously calls "The Toffs" and gives no explanation where the slang terms comes from. Her envy and dismissal of the privileged class is evident throughout the book and reads like a persuasive essay for Tax the Rich and Distribute the Wealth campaigns than a book about how life was lived by servants in the Downton Abbey years.

I bought this book because, like most, I am a fan of Downton Abbey but was very disappointed by it. If you read To Marry an English Lord, you will have a far more entertaining and objective read and you will not have the obvious liberal Pay Their Fair Share liberal slant of Jacky Hyams.

This book would have garnered a better rating if Hyams had left her political opinions out of it.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Written for me!! Nov 24 2012
By Susan - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition
After having finished watching the first two series of Downton Abbey (for the first time), I was curious to know more about the life style. This book was written just for that purpose. It is not a scholarly approach-the author writes in a breezy, informal style. She covered everything I thought to wonder about and then some. She does make occasional refences to the characters in the show, as a means of illustration, but not often. I was not looking for anything indepth or too detailed-the few topics I wanted to explore further (mostly real life people she used as examples), I was easily able to find on the web.
Because the author is British I had to look up a few of her terms, for example toff, which she uses throughout the book. According to my dictionary it is an informal British term for a fashionable upper-class person. A fun word that exemplifies the entertaining aspect of this book.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Downton Abbey For Real...in Stately Homes of the Era Nov 25 2012
By P. Randall - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Downton Abbey is an amazingly effective portrayal of life in stately homes with servants at the turn of the century and around the time of the First World War when life as they knew it began to change forever. This book further explains that life, how it could exist and why it had to change. The fictionalized Downton was hardly fiction and was portrayed very well as this writer tells us the real account of the life above the stairs and downstairs. It is a fascinating read! One can picture the characters in Downton as you read of the butlers and housemen and maids in the Hyams book.
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