Her Ladyship's Guide to Running One's Home

by Caroline Taggart

Her Ladyship turns her attention to a tricky area of modern life—how to run a home. Proper advice on burning domestic issues ranging from everyday housework and how to behave around house guests to dealing with cleaners and babysitters.

 

Ever wondered how to fit the ironing into an already overcrowded schedule, or needed advice on how to deal with house guests whose political opinions you abhor? Her Ladyship dons the mantle of a modern Mrs. Beeton to provide the answers to these pressing domestic questions, and many more. In her trademark lightly humorous but always elegant style, she discusses important issues such as day-to-day housekeeping and routines (exactly how clean do you need to keep your house?), dealing effectively but graciously with "staff" (cleaners, au pairs, gardeners), how to avoid committing social faux pas when entertaining, and useful ideas for getting the children to help with the housework. The book is not aimed solely at people who live in large country houses, like Her Ladyship, but at anyone who feels in need of a bit of gentle guidance on running a home properly, whatever its size or type, while still coping with the demands of work, child care, and all the other perils of modern life.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

I was an editor for 30 years before Michael O’Mara Books asked me to write what became I Used to Know That. I think its success took everyone by surprise – it certainly did me – but it led to my writing a lot of other books and finally, after about three years, feeling able to tell people I was an author. It's a nice feeling.

Until recently the book I was most proud of was The Book of London Place Names (Ebury), partly because I am passionate about London and partly because, having written ten or so books before that, I finally felt I was getting the hang of it.

Now I have to confess I’m really excited by my first venture into continuous narrative. For A Slice of Britain: around the country by cake (AA) I travelled the country investigating, writing about and eating cake. From Cornish Saffron Cake to Aberdeen Butteries, I interviewed about 25 people who are baking cakes, biscuits and buns that are unique to their region, part of their heritage – and pretty darned delicious. The Sunday Times reviewed it and described me as ‘engaging, greedy and droll’, which pleased me enormously.

Reviews

[Teal Veyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of useful tips in here, and I appreciate any author who actually believes in differences between men and women. That's becoming more rare. A lot of it just wasn't applicable to me though, and the writing was a bit tedious at times.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

"As an 1890s edition of 'Good Housekeeping' wisely pointed out, 'Nothing is so vexatious as for a guest to find, preparing to retire, that the bed is lightly clothed...Most guests are reluctant to ask for more bedding, especially when left alone, with the probability that all others in the house may have gone to bed; so they either lie and shiver through a considerable portion of a night, or are driven to other expedients for obtaining the essential degree of warmth.' Her Ladyship glosses lightly over the question of what those 'other expedients' might be, but feels that the point is nonetheless an important one."

[Sazzle182]

Read for the second time, a good book to dip in and out off.