This beautifully illustrated book takes readers on a guided tour of a single day in an upper-crust English home of the Edwardian era. Starting with the servants hard at work while the family is still abed, and culminating in a lavish dinner party, Upstairs & Downstairs lifts the curtain on this fascinating period, as well as its historical bookends, the Victorian and post-World War I eras. Includes accounts from actual masters and servants, along with feature spreads on famous figures.

Includes index.

Before dawn -- A child's friends : Beatrix Potter -- Breakfast time -- Study of a servant : P.G. Wodehouse -- Morning activities -- Votes for servants : Emmeline Pankhurst -- Lunchtime -- A social conscience : George Bernard Shaw -- Afternoon activities -- Difficult relationships : Virginia Woolf -- Fine dining -- Behind every great man : Winston Churchill -- The end of the day -- Eccentric characters : Edith, Osbert & Sacheverell Sitwell.