Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
Crown · Print & ebook · December 27, 2011
The real-life inspiration and setting for the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon.
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- Who it’s for
- A stately history with enough Downton-adjacent frisson to make the details feel pleasantly charged.
- Genres
- Women's Lives, Lives in History, 20th-Century Britain
- Published
- Crown, December 27, 2011
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The real-life inspiration and setting for the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.
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Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman. This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.
Quiet Grandeur
A stately history with enough Downton-adjacent frisson to make the details feel pleasantly charged.
Come here for
- Highclere Castle history, with social texture
- a polished, informative historical read
Expect
- cultural touchstones, carefully handled
- a serious, sustained narrative pace
Where it sits
| 20th-Century Britain | 74% |
|---|---|
| Lives in History | 50% |
| Women's Lives | 33% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Lives in History
- Royal Lives
- 20th-Century Britain
- Authors
- Countess of Fiona Carnarvon, Fiona Carnarvon
- Publisher
- Crown
- Published
- December 27, 2011
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Lives in History