Here are 100 books that What the Butler Winked At fans have personally recommended if you like
What the Butler Winked At.
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I’m a professor of modern Britain with a specialty in nineteenth-century social history. I’m drawn to sources and topics that tell us about how everyday people lived and thought about their lives. One favorite part of my job is the challenge of discovering more about those groups, like working-class women or children, who weren’t the main focus of earlier histories. Since 2000, I’ve taught classes at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Victorian Britain, the British Empire, the First World War, and the history of childhood.
This is one of the first books that I remember buying for myself in graduate school. Cullwick’s descriptions of her relationship with upper-class Arthur Munby (whom she eventually married) and the photographs of her dressed as a maid-of-all-work, a lady, a “slave,” an agricultural worker, and a valet highlight Victorian power negotiations and performativity.
Cullwick started working as a servant at the age of eight. From her diaries, I learned much about the daily lives of domestic servants: their relationships with employers, the different levels of service and employment networks, and the sheer amount of hard, physical labor that it took to run a Victorian household.
"Hannah Cullwick (1833-1909) worked all her life as a maidservant, scullion, and pot-girl. In 1854 she met Arthur Munby, 'man of two worlds,' upper-class author and poet, with a lifelong obsession for lower-class women. And so began their strange and secret romance of eighteen years and marriage of thiry-six, lived largely apart. Hannah's diaries, written on Munby's suggestion, offer an obsorbing account of life 'below stairs' in Victorian England. But they reveal, too, a woman of extraordinary independence of will, whose chosen life of drudgery gave her the freedom not to 'play the Lady,' as Munby demanded. Rescued from obscurity.…
I became fascinated by the Victorian period when I started tracing my family tree in my teens. I wanted to find out more about my ancestors’ lives, and social history quickly became my passion. At weekends, I would visit stately homes and country houses, and I was always more interested in the kitchens and servants’ quarters below the stairs than the grand rooms upstairs. Oral history is one of the most under-valued sources, but it really brings history to life. This list features some of the most detailed memoirs and diaries by domestic servants who wrote about their working lives. Hope you enjoy them!
Elizabeth Banks was an American journalist who settled in London around 1893. She undertook a series of ‘adventures’ in which she posed as a laundry girl, a crossing sweeper, a flower girl, a chaperone, an heiress, and a domestic servant. In working as a maid, she hoped to discover why domestic service ‘was looked upon with so much contumely’.
Originally published as "In Cap and Apron" in the Weekly Sun, Elizabeth’s experiences were then published in 1894 in Campaigns of Curiosity: Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in London. It’s not clear how much artistic licence Elizabeth used when describing her time in domestic service, but she does provide some interesting details about the duties of staff in households where three or four servants were employed.
Campaigns of Curiosity; Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in London is the autobiography of a girl from New Jersey living in London during the height of the Victorian Era.
I became fascinated by the Victorian period when I started tracing my family tree in my teens. I wanted to find out more about my ancestors’ lives, and social history quickly became my passion. At weekends, I would visit stately homes and country houses, and I was always more interested in the kitchens and servants’ quarters below the stairs than the grand rooms upstairs. Oral history is one of the most under-valued sources, but it really brings history to life. This list features some of the most detailed memoirs and diaries by domestic servants who wrote about their working lives. Hope you enjoy them!
William Tayler worked as a footman in London for the wealthy widow Mrs. Prinsep and her unmarried daughter. He kept a diary for the year 1837 "as I am a wretched bad writer [and] many of my friends have advised me to practice more…" On Sundays, he usually went to see his wife and children who were lodged nearby, although he never mentions her or them by name.
As it focuses on just one year, the diary only provides a snapshot of William’s working life. However, it gives an illuminating insight into the life of a male servant for the gentry, including details of what William did in his spare time and how the wealthy entertained. Research has shown that he later became a butler.
Before you read William’s Journal, it is necessary to sketch in his background as briefly as possible. He came from the hamlet of Grafton, which is situated in the south-west corner of Oxfordshire, not far from Faringdon in Berkshire. Its seven grey Cotswold stone farmhouses are linked together by a brook and in the old days you could walk from one house to another along the brookside. These farmhouses sit like old ladies facing the sun and are all on the north side of the brook. In front of them lies all that is left of Grafton Common. If you…
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
I became fascinated by the Victorian period when I started tracing my family tree in my teens. I wanted to find out more about my ancestors’ lives, and social history quickly became my passion. At weekends, I would visit stately homes and country houses, and I was always more interested in the kitchens and servants’ quarters below the stairs than the grand rooms upstairs. Oral history is one of the most under-valued sources, but it really brings history to life. This list features some of the most detailed memoirs and diaries by domestic servants who wrote about their working lives. Hope you enjoy them!
With this book, you get two servants for the price of one! This is a collection of memories from working women who were members of the Women’s Co-operative Guild. The two servants are Mrs. Layton (chapter titled "Memories of Seventy Years") and Mrs. Wrigley (chapter title "A Plate-Layer’s Wife"). Mrs. Wrigley’s recollections of domestic service only span three pages, but she describes her first place, aged nine, as a servant-of-all-work in heart-breaking detail. Mrs. Layton describes ten years in service from the age of ten with some kind (and not so kind) employers. After her marriage, she became a midwife.
“You unlocked a drawer and took out a packet of papers. . . . Sometimes, you said, you got a letter which you could not bring yourself to burn; once or twice a Guildswoman had at your suggestion written a few pages about her life . . .” ―Virginia Woolf to Margaret Llewelyn Davies, describing the circumstances leading to the publication of Life as We Have Known It
A first-hand record of working class women’s experiences in early twentieth-century England, Life as We Have Known It is a unique view of lives Virginia Woolf described as “still half hidden in…
I love puzzles. I’ve made a career of tackling hard puzzles—from aerospace engineering to climate change policy (and now novel writing). A good mystery that keeps me turning pages is a joy, but a good mystery with an unusual investigator is awesome. I think seeing through the eyes of someone unexpected can let us appreciate new perspectives and see the world afresh. I wrote a climate fiction mystery with an amnesiac main character investigating because, in the context of adapting to climate change, perhaps it’s helpful to be less attached to the way things used to be; perhaps an investigator with no memory is just what we need.
I didn’t know I needed a Buddhist nun butler murder investigator character in my life, but I really really did, it turns out.
Somehow, this book keeps the tension and interest up while also casting a calming spell as the head butler runs a west-coast spiritual/yoga retreat and tries to puzzle out who the murderer is. I had a wonderful time reading this—I chuckled, had my heart warmed, and was thoroughly entertained.
Meet Helen Thorpe. She’s smart, preternaturally calm, deeply insightful and a freshly trained butler. On the day she is supposed to start her career as an unusually equanimous domestic professional serving one of the wealthiest families in the world, she is called back to a spiritual retreat where she used to work, the Yatra Institute, on one of British Columbia’s gulf islands. The owner of the lodge, Helen’s former employer Edna, has died while on a three-month silent self-retreat, leaving Helen instructions to settle her affairs.
But Edna’s will is more detailed than most, and getting things in order means…
My writing life is a mixture. I have written novels of crime fiction, many featuring Sherlock Holmes, as well as a variety of sleuths of my own creation. I was editor of the monthly journal of the Crime Writers’ Association for twenty years and have written several plays, non-fiction books as well introductions to numerous literary collections. While I admit that my writings veer towards the serious and dramatic, in my social life I think of myself as a light-hearted fellow and as an antidote to my own dark fiction I enjoy having my spirits lifted by witty and amusing tales that help to raise the spirits.
One of the many great comic novels featuring Bertie Wooster, a rich and likeable but somewhat dim-witted fellow about town and his more than capable butler Jeeves who spends a great deal of his time extricating Bertie from various scrapes in which he finds himself. Wodehouse's light and witty prose and the cast of amusing individuals such as Gussie Fink-Nottle and Tubby Glossop, not only make this book a joy to read but guarantees smiles and laughter.
_________________________________________ 'If comedy is your thing, it's hard to match PG Wodehouse and his classic characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster for hilarious farce.' Irish Daily Mail
'P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century' Sebastian Faulks
'Heaven is Right Ho, Jeeves' Hugh Johnson
'Jeeves, I'm engaged.' 'I hope you will be very happy, sir.' 'Don't be an ass. I'm engaged to Miss Bassett.'
Bertie is feeling most put out when he finds that his friend Gussie is seeking relationship advice from Jeeves. Meanwhile Aunt Dahlia has asked Bertie to present awards at a school prize-giving ceremony. In…
I grew up thinking that being adopted didn’t matter. I was wrong. This book is my journey uncovering the significance and true history of adoption practices in America. Now, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women’s reproductive rights places…
I am Peter C. Bradbury, and it was reading the books of P.G. Wodehouse that attracted me to the career of being a butler. I have also always loved murder mysteries, so when I started writing, I combined those aspects into my first book. I chose these particular books because of the details and the subjects. I was a butler for over twenty years in the UK and the USA, and it annoys me when household staff are incorrectly portrayed. I love movies like Gosford Park and series like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey. The butler sees and hears everything, so I like the writers who know that.
It is absolutely essential reading if you want to be a traditional butler. Most butlers nowadays are more of a personal assistant, but there is still a demand for the more traditional role. This book explains the duties that I used to do and gives me references for those that would crop up from time to time. I really recommend this book as a butler’s bible!
Perched on an island off the shores of Cornwall, England, the soaring castle of St. Michael’s Mount has been home to the St. Aubyn family since 1647. For nearly thirty years, Stanley Ager, one of the most esteemed butlers of the twentieth century, ensured that St. Michael’s Mount was an impeccable place to live and a gracious and welcoming one for guests to visit.
Revered by everyone from royalty to the estate staff, Stanley Ager considered it his calling to run a home gracefully and efficiently. Several of the men whom he trained at St. Michael’s Mount went on to…
I am Peter C. Bradbury, and it was reading the books of P.G. Wodehouse that attracted me to the career of being a butler. I have also always loved murder mysteries, so when I started writing, I combined those aspects into my first book. I chose these particular books because of the details and the subjects. I was a butler for over twenty years in the UK and the USA, and it annoys me when household staff are incorrectly portrayed. I love movies like Gosford Park and series like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey. The butler sees and hears everything, so I like the writers who know that.
I loved the interactions between the butler and his employer. The author understood the relationship, and I really liked how he put humor and sarcasm into the conversations. In my opinion, a butler needs to be grounded; otherwise, it can be a really stressful job. The main character, Jeeves, recognizes that he is the perfect employer for a male butler and doesn’t want the situation to change.
My Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse is a collection of comedic work featuring three of Wodehouse's famous characters. Bertie is an idle rich man, who is always ready to help his friends. However, he would never be able to do so without the help of his odd but intelligent valet, Jeeves. Said to be the prototype for Bertie, Reggie Pepper is also rich Englishman dedicated to assisting his friends, however, unlike Bertie, he often has to act as the brains in any situation he is in, as he does not have a useful assistant like Jeeves. This collection of stories…
The world is an amazing, diverse place that needs stories that represent everyone. I identify as gender fluid and am part of my city’s LGBTQIA+ community. For kids, there aren’t enough stories that feature non-straight cis protagonists where that identity isn’t the focus. LGBTQIA+ kids exist. They are normal. Let a gay kid go into space. Let a teenage lesbian solve a mystery. Let a trans girl defeat a dragon. Let an ace teen be a witch. Everybody deserves their adventure.
Lumberjanes books, comics, and graphic novels are tremendous fun featuring a group of girls (and a non-binary scout named Barney) at a summer camp located in a forest full of mythical beings, some helpful, some mischievous, and some that are downright malevolent.
Growing up, I would have begged to be a Lumberjane had they been around then. The Infernal Compass is a wonderful addition to the franchise.
The Infernal Compass is standard Lumberjanes fare, focusing on Molly and Mal, who are worried how their dating each other might impact the other campers. There is magic and peril and problems to solve. Lumberjanes books have everyone: gay scouts, straight scouts, super strong scouts, trans scouts, non-binary scouts, and even a Greek goddess.
The first original graphic novel set in the award winning and critically acclaimed Lumberjanes world!
When the Janes start to become separated during an orienteering outing thanks to a mysterious compass, Molly becomes more and more insecure about the effect of her relationship with Mal on the other girls. Meanwhile, a lonely woman explorer is trying to steal the compass, with the help of some weirdly polite automaton butlers.
Based on the New York Times bestseller and multiple Eisner-Award and GLAAD-award winning series, Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass is written by Lilah Sturges and illustrated by polterink.
Meet Lev Gleason, a real-life comics superhero! Gleason was a titan among Golden Age comics publishers who fought back against the censorship campaigns and paranoia of the Red Scare. After dropping out of Harvard to fight in World War I in France, Gleason moved to New York City and eventually…
I am passionate about giving people the benefit of good intentions and my faith calls me to care and serve others. Today, I believe my purpose is to help inspire leaders to trust in the inherent good in people while caring and serving them in intentional ways that leads to high performance. I have been blessed immensely and want to give back to others so their journey can be one of significance. As former CEO of my company, I had no roadmap which made our journey even more difficult. Now, I have experienced the joy, the fulfillment, and the abundance of building a people-first culture. Together we can make a difference for so many people.
We are in an exponential world today and we grew up in an incremental world for businesses.
Daniel not only helps us understand how to anticipate more of the future, he teaches us how to anticipate which is one of the most important skills for business leaders today. After reading his book, I also worked through his anticipatory leader course.
By understanding the power of being anticipatory, I have used his techniques to lead our firm to bigger opportunities. In the future of work, anticipating what people will want and need, provides a distinctive advantage.
A rousing 7-step plan for living a life filled with hope and possibility from an inspirational speaker who survived a near-fatal fire at the age of nine and now runs a successful business inspiring people all around the world. When John O'Leary was nine years old, he was almost killed in a devastating house fire. With burns on one hundred percent of his body, O'Leary mustered an almost unimaginable amount of inner strength just to survive the ordeal. The insights he gained through this experience and the heroes who stepped into his life to help him through the journey, his…
