"From the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, the launch of a brilliant new trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world of Downton Abbey As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne is facing serious financial concerns. The ripple effects spread to everyone in the household: Lord Robert, who has gambled unwisely on the stock market and seeks a place in the Cabinet;his unmarried children, Arthur, who keeps a courtesan, and Rosina, who keeps a parrot in her bedroom; Lord Robert's wife Isobel, who orders the affairs of the household in Belgrave Square; and Grace, the lady's maid who orders the life of her mistress.Lord Robert can see no financial relief to an already mortgaged estate, and, though the Season is over, his thoughts turn to securing a suitable wife (and dowry) for his son. The arrival on the London scene of Minnie, a beautiful Chicago heiress with a reputation to mend, seems the answer to all their prayers. As the writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs--Fay Weldon brings a deserved reputation for magnificent storytelling. With wit and sympathy--and no small measure of mischief--Habits of the House plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct. "-- - (Baker & Taylor)

The award-winning writer for Upstairs Downstairs presents a first entry in a new trilogy about the shared lives of masters and servants at the turn of the 20th century, tracing the family life of Cabinet hopeful Lord Robert, who hopes to alleviate financial woes by marrying his son to a disgraced Chicago heiress. - (Baker & Taylor)

The first entry in a trilogy about the shared lives of masters and servants at the turn of the twentieth century traces the family life of Cabinet hopeful Lord Robert, who hopes to alleviate financial woes by marrying his son to a disgraced Chicago heiress. - (Baker & Taylor)

From the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, the launch of a brilliant new trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world ofDownton Abbey

As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne is facing serious financial concerns. The ripple effects spread to everyone in the household: Lord Robert, who has gambled unwisely on the stock market and seeks a place in the Cabinet; his unmarried children, Arthur, who keeps a courtesan, and Rosina, who keeps a parrot in her bedroom; Lord Robert's wife Isobel, who orders the affairs of the household in Belgrave Square; and Grace, the lady's maid who orders the life of her mistress.

Lord Robert can see no financial relief to an already mortgaged estate, and, though the Season is over, his thoughts turn to securing a suitable wife (and dowry) for his son. The arrival on the London scene of Minnie, a beautiful Chicago heiress with a reputation to mend, seems the answer to all their prayers.

As the writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs--Fay Weldon brings a deserved reputation for magnificent storytelling. With wit and sympathy--and no small measure of mischief--Habits of the House plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct.

FAY WELDON is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who, at the age of 16, lived in a grand London townhouse as the daughter of the housekeeper. In addition to winning a Writers' Guild Award for the pilot ofUpstairs Downstairs, she is a Commander of the British Empire whose books includePraxis, shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; The Heart of the Country, winner of the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize;Worst Fears, shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award; and Wicked Women, which won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. She lives in England. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Booklist Reviews

Before there was Downton Abbey, there was Upstairs, Downstairs, and, having written the first episode of that iconic television series, it is only fitting that Weldon now returns to the scene of the crime to further explore the disparate worlds of "them that has and those what serve 'em." On the brink of the twentieth century, all is not well in the House of Dilberne. The earl has gambled away most of his patrimony and lost the remainder in an ill-timed investment. Inspired by his own fortuitous marriage to Isobel, daughter of a wealthy coal baron, his lordship's only hope of saving the family bacon is to marry his son, Arthur, off to the daughter of an American businessman. What with Arthur's predilection for a local trollop and preoccupation with experimental automobiles, this won't be an easy task. Luckily, there's a mansion's worth of dubiously loyal maids, butlers, and cooks to conduct vital backroom negotiations. Always a ripe target for mockery and disdain, the British aristocracy comes in for a thorough drubbing in Weldon's snarky send-up. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The first novel in beloved British writer Weldon's new series launches with a hefty print run and all-out national marketing campaign carrying the banner, "Poised for Bestsellerdom." Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.