A Girl At Government House: An English Girl's Reminiscences 'Below Stairs' In Colonial Australia
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Step behind the grand doors of colonial power and into the quarters of those who kept them running — A Girl at Government House presents the vivid, first-hand reminiscences of an English girl who served 'below stairs' in one of Australia's most prestigious colonial residences. Through her candid and often surprising recollections, the narrative uncovers the daily rhythms, social hierarchies, and hidden tensions of colonial Australian life as seen through the eyes of a working-class domestic servant, offering a rare and intimate portrait of an era typically viewed from the top down. Edited with care and scholarly sensitivity by Helen Vellacott, this account stands as a remarkable document of social history, illuminating the intersection of class, gender, and empire in nineteenth-century Australia. The prose carries an unaffected authenticity that no formal history could replicate, drawing the reader into a world of starched uniforms, whispered gossip, and the ever-present weight of colonial propriety. For anyone captivated by the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary settings, this memoir asks a quietly provocative question: who truly ran Government House?
Author: Edited By Helen Vellacott
Format: Hardback
Published: 1982, Currey O'Neil
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Step behind the grand doors of colonial power and into the quarters of those who kept them running — A Girl at Government House presents the vivid, first-hand reminiscences of an English girl who served 'below stairs' in one of Australia's most prestigious colonial residences. Through her candid and often surprising recollections, the narrative uncovers the daily rhythms, social hierarchies, and hidden tensions of colonial Australian life as seen through the eyes of a working-class domestic servant, offering a rare and intimate portrait of an era typically viewed from the top down. Edited with care and scholarly sensitivity by Helen Vellacott, this account stands as a remarkable document of social history, illuminating the intersection of class, gender, and empire in nineteenth-century Australia. The prose carries an unaffected authenticity that no formal history could replicate, drawing the reader into a world of starched uniforms, whispered gossip, and the ever-present weight of colonial propriety. For anyone captivated by the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary settings, this memoir asks a quietly provocative question: who truly ran Government House?