Recommendations from Rakestraw Books
Recommendations of recent books from the staffs of a rotating list of Bay Area independent bookstores.
Upstairs and downstairs stories braid together in this century-spanning novel starring an English country mansion and the people who lived and worked there.
The perfect introduction to the world of the Earl of Emsworth and his stately home, misbehaving relatives, dignified butler and that noble pig, the Empress of Blandings.
Based on the letters and diaries of six servants in Victoria’s household, this informative read offers an unusual window into life at the very top of English society.
Before she was a committed communist and a muckraking journalist, Jessica Mitford was one of the younger daughters of a wildly eccentric English earl.
The Secret Rooms: A True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret, by Catherine Bailey:
The long-sealed family archives at Belvoir Castle contain the clues to unlock a mystery from the years just before World War I.
While high society careened from one house party to the next, the cracks were starting to show in England just before the Great War.