Classics

Books for Upstairs, Downstairs & Downton Abbey Fans!

Wallace Yovetich Nov 14, 2012

Wallace Yovetich

Staff Writer

Wallace Yovetich grew up in a home where reading was preferred to TV, playing outside was actually fun, and she was thrilled when her older brothers weren’t home so she could have a turn on the Atari. Now-a-days she watches a bit more TV, and considers sitting on the porch swing (with her laptop) “playing outside”. She still thinks reading is preferable to most things, though she’d really like to find out where her mom put that old Atari (Frogger addicts die hard). She runs a series of Read-a-Longs throughout the year (as well as posting fun bookish tidbits throughout the week) on her blog, Unputdownables. After teaching for seven years, Wallace is now an aspiring writer. Blog: Unputdownables Twitter: @WallaceYovetich

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On any given Sunday night during winters (in the US, fall in the UK) you can find the Twitterverse flooded with tweets about Downton Abbey. This fall, Masterpiece Theater decided to run another (longer) season of the remake of Upstairs, Downstairs as well, much to the delight of fans who watched (what we thought was only going to be) a three part mini-series in the late winter of 2010. Apparently BBC figured out that there is quite a market for shows that feature a culture with which we are no longer accustomed to, but are highly entertained by.

This past Sunday we watched the finale of the second season of Upstairs, Downstairs and will have to wait until January 6th, 2013 (here in the US) to see the season 3 premiere of Downton Abbey, so here are some titles to tide you over during the gap in programming.

Try one of the following non-fiction titles that give you cooking ideas, insights into the lives of those living upstairs and downstairs during the beginning of the 20th century, the perspective of women as they went from their homes to service during the great wars, and glimpses into the making of one of television’s most popular TV series.

If you have a hankering for a bit more fiction, you may find you enjoy the introduction to life at a country manor, a mystery of long-past night of tragedy revisited by a one time housemaid, or a gothic story of a Lady’s Maid.