They are both utterly terrific reads although the Below Stairs is easier if one doesn't know a lot about early 20th century Britain.My Grandmothers and I really made me understand WHY the people of Diana Holman-Hunt's generation went in for white walls and why they sometimes hated the Victorian Age.
I, on the other hand, grew up in those white, barely furnished modern awfulnesses and was thrilled when I discovered the luxury and opulence that had once existed and that people once lived in and with.
