pre-order available
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Pages:
416
Published:
Nov 2026
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Random House
Imprint
Jonathan Cape
ISBN:
9781529961980
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Venture behind closed doors to uncover the secrets of life in the interwar country house...
During the 1920s and 1930s, as the sun set slowly on the British Empire, England's stately homes concealed worlds both opulent and ordinary, noble and viscious. This was a realm draped in myth, hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles.
Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, on unpublished letters and diaries, on the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls, unhappy heiresses and bullying butlers, The Long Weekend reveals how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs, and how the reality was so much more interesting than the dream.
'A perfect piece of escapism' Guardian
'A delicious cocktail of a book' Country Life
'Elegant, encyclopaedic and entertaining' The Times
Venture behind closed doors to uncover the secrets of life in the interwar country house...
During the 1920s and 1930s, as the sun set slowly on the British Empire, England's stately homes concealed worlds both opulent and ordinary, noble and viscious. This was a realm draped in myth, hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles.
Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, on unpublished letters and diaries, on the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls, unhappy heiresses and bullying butlers, The Long Weekend reveals how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs, and how the reality was so much more interesting than the dream.
'A perfect piece of escapism' Guardian
'A delicious cocktail of a book' Country Life
'Elegant, encyclopaedic and entertaining' The Times
$40.00
