Tessa Boase- The Housekeeper’s Tale

The second talk in the 2017 Season takes place on May 19th.

Author Tessa Boase has uncovered a series of extraordinary true stories about the housekeepers who ran some of Britain’s most prominent households.

£20 with coffee and cake. tickets HERE

Far from the cosy, complacent world of Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey, real housekeepers worked surprisingly hard, often in humiliating circumstances, for very little financial reward. This was not, as it turns out, such a cushy job.

Tessa’s talk will focus on two very different housekeepers: the ineffectual and elderly Mrs Wells of Uppark in Sussex (mother to H.G.Wells), and racy Scotswoman Hannah Mackenzie, sacked for a secret love affair at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire during its role as a Great War private hospital.

The morning at Fairlight will end with a tour of the original Victorian service quarters, never before glimpsed by the public. We’ll also find out how modern ‘servants’ run a 21st century country house for the new aristocracy – and just how demanding a modern master and mistress might be.

There will be the opportunity to buy a signed copy of Tessa’s book, The Housekeeper’s Tale.

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