The House

Book Synopsis: ‘Wonderfully complicated, funny and moving’ - Julian Fellowes ‘Mitfordesque affection and brio’ Valerie Grove, - The Times
The year is 1945, and people the world over are celebrating the end of the Second World War. But for Sydney Otterton, the end of hostilities means a return to a different kind of burden: the crumbling country estate he has inherited. He may have managed to persuade his wife Priscilla that moving in with their children is the right and proper thing to do, but how easy will it be? With the prospect of vast death duties looming over the household, plus upkeep to the freezing rooms and ongoing rationing after the war, just making ends meet may be an even tougher battle than the one he has just fought. Then there’s Sydney’s vindictive mother Lilian to contend with, plus some dubious lodgers, a frightening Mamzelle, a butler who is a little too fond of the bottle, and an elderly Polish historian intent on writing the family’s colourful history. Thank goodness for housekeeper Annie Jerrold, one of the few sane voices in the house. But when some sinister letters from the past turn up, it seems there are even more skeletons in the closet. What will become of the Ottertons in their majestic, fading, family mansion? Why does Lilian Otterton persist in acting so strangely? And will the family ever find a way of living the life of their ancestors in the latter half of the twentieth century? A deliciously unsentimental portrait of the harder realities of life in a grand country house, from the pen of Teresa Waugh.

Praise for The House: ‘Wonderfully complicated, funny and moving’ - Julian Fellowes ‘A delightful and surprisingly touching novel. The plot is high-spirited, enjoyable nonsense — rather like Wilkie Collins crossed with Nancy Mitford…But this literary bagatelle has unexpected depth and emotional resonance. It is written with winning and warming affection … it is both frothy and unexpectedly emotionally powerful’ - Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph ‘A dispassionate, yet affectionate study of the country-house, Upstairs Downstairs set-up whose death knell was sounded by the Second World War…Teresa Waugh brilliantly evokes the hermetically sealed world of the village estate, where the postmistress listens to everyone’s telephone conversations, an umbrella is an object worthy of retrieval when mislaid and Annie can’t imagine anywhere without elms’ - Jane Charteris, Literary Review ‘The House is beguiling and astringent, a celebration not a lament’ - Matthew Dennison, Country Life ‘Teresa Waugh introduces us to the rougher side of country house living at the end of the second world war…Within the powerful framework of The House an odd, sinister story is told through the diaries and letters of four of the six characters…It’s a compulsive read and very funny’ - Clayre Percy, Spectator ‘A superb comic melodrama unfolds through the diaries and letters of four main characters’ Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

Teresa Waugh was born in 1940, the only daughter of the late sixth Earl of Onslow, KBE, MC, and she spent her childhood in the family home at West Clandon, Surrey. In 1978, she obtained a First Class degree in French and Italian at the University of Exeter, and she has since translated several books. She is the author of Sylvia’s Lot, The Gossips, and Song at Twilight. She currently resides in Somerset and has four children.

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