Downton Abbey returns to our screens this weekend and will take us through the next few years of drama at Downton Abbey. If you love Downton like we do, perhaps you’d like to consider reading some books about the time period.

We’ve gathered up a list of books that are suitable reading if you’re interested in the Edwardian era or life in service in general.

The Swallowcliffe Hall Series by Jennie Walters

Jennie Walters is a good friend of ours and was kind enough to know us around Dorset when we visited last May. Jennie has written a bestselling series of novels based at a country house called Swallowcliffe Hall. Here’s the synopsis of the first one:

For ‘Downton Abbey’ fans! Scandal, romance and intrigue in a grand old English country house: Swallowcliffe Hall, home to the aristocratic Vye family and the staff who look after them. When Polly Perkins starts work at the Hall, she finds it hard to learn the manners and etiquette expected of her. Life at Swallowcliffe is a whirl of shooting parties, picnics and balls, and an army of servants is required to look after the guests. Housemaids are meant to be seen and not heard, and nobody takes much notice of the quiet young girl who lights their fires and empties their slops. But Polly is sharp-eyed and quick-witted, and gradually she uncovers a secret lurking in the shadows of the Hall’s elegant rooms – a secret that will end up breaking her heart. When a young American heiress arrives to stay at Swallowcliffe, Polly must decide whether the time has come for her to reveal what she knows.

They’re great reads and available both on the Kindle and in Paperback.

The Cook’s Tale by Nancy Jackman and Tom Quinn

Told in the first person by a woman who lived the hard life as a cook in a number of England’s country houses, this is the true story of what life was really like below the stairs. In some houses in the English countryside, the cook had a lot more to do than just the cooking—and Nancy Jackman experienced it all. She was expected to kill the chickens, oversee the pig-sticker, deal with the tradesmen, and shout at the kitchen maids. Born in 1907 in a remote Norfolk village, she left school at the age of 14 to work as a cook for a local farmer. He forced her to stand in the rain when she made a mistake, physically abused her, and eventually tried to rape her—and that was only her first such experience in the world below the stairs. In this at times heartbreaking, at times hilarious, tell-all about the life of a cook and a kitchen maid, Nancy goes into detail about what it was like working for people who had no idea how to care for themselves—and how deeply things in the world of upstairs/downstairs changed in the 1950s, following the end of the Second World War.

They Also Serve by Bob Sharpe

Told by a man who’s seen it all firsthand and perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, this is a scandilous behind-the-scenes look at the real-life estate houses of England. During more than 30 years in a variety of houses, Bob Sharpe managed to rise from garden boy to valet and finally to the feared and respected position of butler. As a boy he had to kill pheasant chicks, boil rabbits for the estate dogs, carry the wood up and down stairs every day for 30 fires, and sleep on the floor outside his master’s room. He cleaned shoes, ironed underwear and socks, and once had to stand all night in the hall waiting for a late visitor to arrive. But as a butler he was the best paid servant in the house, waited on, feared, and respected by the other servants. Bob Sharpe knew the real world of upstairs/downstairs and the secrets of the landed gentry—even to the point of incest and attempted murder—and it’s all included here in this captivating read.

Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor

In 1928, Rosina Harrison arrived at the illustrious household of the Astor family to take up her new position as personal maid to the infamously temperamental Lady Nancy Astor, who sat in Parliament, entertained royalty, and traveled the world. “She’s not a lady as you would understand a lady” was the butler’s ominous warning. But what no one expected was that the iron-willed Lady Astor was about to meet her match in the no-nonsense, whip-smart girl from the country. For 35 years, from the parties thrown for royalty and trips across the globe, to the air raids during WWII, Rose was by Lady Astor’s side and behind the scenes, keeping everything running smoothly. In charge of everything from the clothes and furs to the baggage to the priceless diamond “sparklers,” Rose was closer to Lady Astor than anyone else. In her decades of service she received one £5 raise, but she traveled the world in style and retired with a lifetime’s worth of stories.

Engagement at Beautfort Hall

An original e-Novella from beloved New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather, set in the time period made popular by Downton Abbey! When Imogen Carstairs discovers that her fiancé Charles Riverdale has been carrying on an affair with another woman throughout their betrothal, she immediately calls off the engagement, just three days before the wedding. In the wake of social scandal and a broken heart, Gen retreats to her family’s sprawling country estate with her sister, Esther. But Beaufort Hall proves not as distant an escape as she’d hoped, and Gen is compelled to wonder if she can let herself trust Charles again after such a betrayal. Should she follow her head…or her heart?
 
 

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration for the hit PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon and the basis of the fictional character Lady Cora Crawley. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon’s ancestral home.  Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman. This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

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

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.

Beyond Downton Abbey: A Guide to 25 Great Houses

This is an excellent guide to the major character of the show that often goes unmentioned – the stately homes themselves. Beyond Downton Abbey, Volume 1 is filled with fascinating tidbits from the history of the houses and the families that lived and worked in them. Full color, with beautiful photographs, this is a guidebook for serious travelers and armchair tourists alike.

 
 
 
 
 
 

The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook

From Lady Mary’s Crab Canapes to Mrs. Patmore’s Christmas Pudding – More Than 150 Recipes from Upstairs and Downstairs. Nibble on Sybil’s Ginger Nut Biscuits during tea. Treat yourself to Ethel’s Beloved Crepes Suzette. Feast on Mr. Bates’ Chicken and Mushroom Pie with a room full of guests. With this collection of delicacies inspired by Emmy Award-winning series Downton Abbey, you’ll feel as sophisticated and poised as the men and women of Downton when you prepare these upstairs and downstairs favorites.

 
 
 
 

The Edwardian Country House: A Social and Architectural History

The magnificent country houses built in Britain between 1890 and 1939 were the last monuments to a vanishing age. Many of these great mammoths of domestic architecture were unsuited to the changes in economic and social priorities that followed the two world wars, and rapidly became extinct. Those that survive, however, provide tangible evidence of the life and death of an extraordinarily prosperous age. Originally published in 1980, long out of print and now thoroughly revised and reillustrated, this book recounts the architectural and social history of the era, describing the clients, the architects, the styles and accoutrements of the country houses. The people who could afford them – the Carnegies, the Astors, the Leverhulmes – had grown rich by exploiting the new economic opportunities of the age, and the houses they built in the years before the First World War reflect the desire for two contrasting ways of life. The social country house was the setting for the opulent world associated with Edward VII. The romantic country house was simpler, more genuinely rural, for those who wanted to be in closer contact with the countryside and the vanishing rural crafts, or who wanted an idyll of the past that did not suggest the world of the motor car. These traditions lost coherence after the war, and the period ended with a number of spectacular, and often eccentric, houses. Some of the most remarkable were those that not only replicated the look of old buildings, but used genuinely old materials and even incorporated whole Tudor buildings moved from other places.

Have you discovered at great Downton Abbey related book? Let us know about it in the comments!