10 books for people who like Downton Abbey
It's been a few years since Downton Abbey wrapped up, and I still wish they'd make more than episodes! I've watched all the seasons at least twice and have spent quite a bit of time finding similar period pieces to watch – merely I always want to notice more! Having watched pretty much everything I tin can find that's similar, I've turned to books. If you're a Downton Abbey fan like I am, y'all'll savour today'southward book list of ten books like Downton Abbey. And even if yous're not a Downton fan, there are some great books here.
I've linked to all these books on Audible, where you can find the audio versions. I love having an audiobook ready on my telephone for those times when I'm waiting to pick up kids afterwards school or standing in line at the grocery store. Audiobooks are the perfect way to make your mean solar day-to-mean solar day chores more enjoyable, whether it'due south folding laundry, driving people around town, or going for a jog. Click hither for a free 30 day trial of Audible and download your outset audiobook for free!
1. The Summertime Before the War by Helen Simonson
This volume takes place in 1914, just as World War I is about to begin, right at the same time period of season 1 of Downton Abbey. This book focuses on how "ordinary" people in a small British boondocks cope with the approach of war (and the fact that the new Latin teacher happens to exist a woman of all things). I loved this book! It's extremely well written with vivid characters and just enough detail to brand me feel like I was actually visiting the piffling coastal town. Note: this author has written another highly enjoyable volume that I've recommended earlier – Major Pettigrew's Last Stand up.
two. In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen
This book has a like setting to Downton Abbey – in a great house at the beginning of a world war – simply information technology's set at the cusp of WWII, not WWI. When Lord Westerham's youngest daughter, Pheobe, discovers the body of a soldier who fell to his death when his parachute failed, things begin to become complicated. One of Lord Westerham's older daughters ends up working as a code breaker at Bletchley, while another girl is involved with the French resistence. Meanwhile, their neighbor and and babyhood friend Ben is dispatched by MI-five to investigate the mysterious parachuter and determine if a spy is in their midst. This is a menses piece, spy novel, and love story all wrapped up into i, quite successfully in my opinion!
3. The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
So this book is unabashedly written for fans of Downton Abbey, and it tells a story that could have been Cora's had she not ended up with Lord Grantham (in fact, the master character's proper name IS Cora). Cora Cash is one of the wealthy American girls who travelled to England in the tardily 1800'due south in hopes of "catching" a married man and a title, which she does, quite hands in fact. Unfortunately for her, all is not as wonderful every bit information technology seems! (Sure, we could have predicted that, but hey, it's nonetheless fun.) No thou literary aspirations here, just an engaging story that fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy.
4. Belgravia past Julian Fellowes
This volume is set in the 1840's, well earlier Downton Abbey times, but since it's written by Julian Fellowes (who wrote Downton) information technology has a very similar feel. The story actually begins in 1815 at a ball held by the famous Duchess of Richmond on the day earlier the Boxing of Waterloo. The starting time is what y'all've come up to expect from many of these sorts of novels: it starts with a love affair that's forbidden because class lines really ought non to exist crossed. And then comes war, separation, secrets, high social club snobs, some romance and a mostly enjoyable tale immersed in a lot of catamenia atmosphere. I enjoyed this one!
5. Her Majestic Spyness serial past Rhys Bowen
I'k not mostly a huge fan of mysteries: they often feel either too gritty and violent (no fun) or too fluffy and predictable (no substance). Just I think Rhys Bowen has gotten it but correct with her series about Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, who happens to be 34th in line for the English language throne and completely broke. These books poke fun at the conventions we've seen in Downton Abbey and how express the upper classes are in basic life skills. Lady Victoria (aka Georgie) has been kicked out of her family unit habitation by her grumpy sister-in-law and ends upwardly in London without a penny to live on or a clue of how to provide for herself, since getting a job would exist completely beneath someone related to royalty. Speaking of royalty, the Queen herself wants Georgie to do a chip of spying. And then there's the bit about the dead Frenchman showing up in her tub… This book is a lot of fun without beingness complete fluff and I call up the catamenia aspect is very well done.
6. Netherwood by Jane Sanderson
Lord Netherwood has made his fortune from 3 successful mines, and he and his family unit have come to accept their vast income for granted. Only what most the people who piece of work (and die) in those very mines? This books centers on the story of Eve Williams, a resourceful, hardworking woman who lives a poor but happy life in the mining boondocks of Netherwood, at least until tragedy strikes. When Eve decides to set up a small business, Lord Netherwood takes an interest… This is a nice long, cozy book with lots of details about the lives of those who made the opulent lifestyle of large houses like Downton Abbey possible.
7. Beneath Stairs by Margaret Powell
If yous've ever wondered how accurate the depiction of servants' life in Downton Abbey is, this book is for y'all. This is the memoir of a real-life kitchen maid that was said to have inspired both Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, and it's a hoot! Margaret tells the states virtually her early life, growing up with almost nothing but a loving family and lots of light-green grass to run around in. She describes the hardships of her life so affair of factly that at the same time you realize just how difficult life was for many of the "lower" classes at the turn of the century, you lot also realize people can be happy with very little in the manner of money or possessions. She describes her jobs as a kitchen maid and melt with many different families, revealing much near how the "upper form" functioned at the time. While the account isn't every bit polished every bit most books I read (Margaret left school at 13 to start earning her ain mode), it'southward honest, lively, hilarious, and poignant at the same time. For case this is her explanation of why poor people had so many children in those days:
You see that was the only pleasance poor people could afford. It costs zilch – at least at the time when you were actually making the children. The fact that it would price yous something later on, well, the working-class people never looked ahead in those days. They didn't dare. It was enough to alive for the present.
Subsequently the success of her commencement book, Margaret Powell wrote three or four more, and now they are all on my to-read list!
8. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
This is 1 of my favorite books! Seventeen-yr-quondam Cassandra lives in a castle: a ramshackle, tumbledown castle with inappreciably any furniture and not enough nutrient. Cassandra'due south father, a in one case-famous author, at present spends most of his time reading mystery novels and doing crossword puzzles, and generally not earning whatsoever coin at all. Things are looking dire indeed when ii handsome (and very wealthy!) brothers move in next door. Cassandra's older sis is determined to marry one of them to save her family from poverty, while Cassandra's little brother dreams up a scheme to convince their father to start writing once more. All the while Cassandra chronicles it all in her journal for united states to enjoy. This book has but about everything I love: set in England, period piece (1930'south), quirky, likeable characters, cracking writing, and an interesting storyline that will definitely appeal to people who similar Downton Abbey!
9. The Chilbury's Ladies Choir Jennifer Ryan
In the early days of World State of war II, the vicar of Chilbury decides to disband the choir because in that location'south no apply having it when all the men are gone anyway. The women of Chilbury accept other plans, however, and decide to continue singing even though an all-female choir is unheard of. Against this backdrop, we come to know five women in the choir and see their stories unfold on the homefront: a timid widow who begins to discover her own strength, a midwife desperate to proceed her crimes from coming to light, a pair of sisters who both love rather "inappropriate" men, and a Jewish refugee with her own secrets. While the setting differs from that of Downton Abbey, this book feels like in the style it gives a window to the lives of women struggling to reconcile the vast changes in their lives. Very nicely written.
x. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon
The storyline of Downton Abbey isn't based on any one real family, but the castle information technology was filmed at definitely has stories of it'due south own! This book is written by the present mean solar day Countess of Carnarvon, who lives at Highclere Castle (where Downton was filmed), and chronicles one of it's nearly famous inhabitants. Lady Almina has much in common with Cora from Downton: she – and her money – were married off to a titled landowner with an ancestral domicile that needed saving. Almina makes a splash as a club hostess, throwing lavish assurance and parties, and subsequently converts Highclere into a hospital during WWI. This is a biography, not a novel, and so it reads a petty differently than the other books I've recommended today, but information technology will definitely exist of involvement to whatsoever diehard Downton fan!
I hope you lot bask some of these books! Let me know what you're listening to right now in the comments, and exist certain to click over to Audible for a free 30 24-hour interval trial and download your first audiobook for free!
This is a sponsored chat written by me on behalf of Audible. The opinions and text are all mine.
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