Book description
Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London. But when her
debilitating tuberculosis means exile, she and her devoted lady's maid,
Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes, with a mixture of
wonder and trepidation, the odd mnage marshalled by the resourceful
Omar, which travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor. As Lady Duff
Gordon undoes her stays and takes to native dress, throwing herself into
weekly salons; language lessons;excursions to the tombs; Sally too
adapts to a new world, affording her heady and heartfelt freedoms never
known before. But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and
when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally
reminded that she is mistress of nothing. Lady Duff Gordon is the
toast of Victorian London. But when her debilitating tuberculosis means
exile, she and her devoted lady's maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is
Sally who describes, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation, the odd
mnage marshalled by the resourceful Omar, which travels down the Nile to
a new life in Luxor. As Lady Duff Gordon undoes her stays and takes to
native dress, throwing herself into weekly salons; language
lessons;excursions to the tombs; Sally too adapts to a new world,
affording her heady and heartfelt freedoms never known before. But
freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps
more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she
is mistress of nothing.
