Book description
It's summer 1936, and the world is on the cusp of change, but there's
little sign of this in rural Sussex. So when Kitty Allen answers an
advert looking for 'a good plain cook', she has no idea what she's in
for. For starters, her employer is an American called Ellen Steinberg
who believes in having the staff call her by her first name and
sunbathing in the nude. Then there's Ellen's eleven-year-old daughter,
Geenie, a bright, unhappy little thing, and Mrs Steinberg's gentleman
friend, Mr Crane, who's said to be a poet - even though he doesn't have
a beard and doesn't actually write much poetry. Rich bohemians imagining
themselves as communists, Steinberg and Crane see themselves as
champions of 'the people' - not that they know the first thing about how
the people actually live. Kitty is in no position to criticise - after
all she claimed to be a good plain cook, despite hardly knowing how to
boil an egg. Utterly out of her depth, she is relieved to have the
gardener, Arthur, to talk to. Otherwise she'd never last a summer in
this madhouse. Ellen Steinberg wants life to run as smoothly as the love
story she imagines her lover George Crane to be writing. But as Kitty
arrives, the dream is on the edge of falling apart. It's summer 1936,
and the world is on the cusp of change, but there's little sign of this
in rural Sussex. So when Kitty Allen answers an advert looking for 'a
good plain cook', she has no idea what she's in for. For starters, her
employer is an American called Ellen Steinberg who believes in having
the staff call her by her first name and sunbathing in the nude. Then
there's Ellen's eleven-year-old daughter, Geenie, a bright, unhappy
little thing, and Mrs Steinberg's gentleman friend, Mr Crane, who's said
to be a poet - even though he doesn't have a beard and doesn't actually
write much poetry. Rich bohemians imagining themselves as communists,
Steinberg and Crane see themselves as champions of 'the people' - not
that they know the first thing about how the people actually live. Kitty
is in no position to criticise - after all she claimed to be a good
plain cook, despite hardly knowing how to boil an egg. Utterly out of
her depth, she is relieved to have the gardener, Arthur, to talk to.
Otherwise she'd never last a summer in this madhouse. Ellen Steinberg
wants life to run as smoothly as the love story she imagines her lover
George Crane to be writing. But as Kitty arrives, the dream is on the
edge of falling apart.
