Tessa Boase has trawled through old bundles of letters, secret diaries and neglected stately home archives to resurrect a series of extraordinary personal stories from 19th and 20th-century domestic service. Revelatory, gripping and unexpectedly poignant, The Housekeeper’s Tale champions the heroic women behind some of our most prominent households.

Join historian Tessa Boase, author of The Housekeeper’s Tale at Jaffe & Neale’s Bookshop & Café, 1 Middle Row, Chipping Norton, OX7 5NH.