Loving

Published in 1945, this novel is set in an Irish country house during the Second World War, among the English servants who keep it running while the owners come and go. When the old butler dies, Charley Raunce steps into his place and begins a wary courtship of the housemaid Edith. Below stairs, the staff scheme over tips, a missing ring, a peacock, and who will be sent up to the bedrooms. Above, Mrs Tennant's daughter-in-law conducts a private life the servants observe and partly manage. The war is present as rationing, fear of invasion, and talk of going back to England. The book is a servants'-hall novel, not a campaign story.

Bound in green cloth printed on covers and spine with drawings in black and blue. Blue slipcase and endpapers.