Manor House: Life in an Edwardian Country House

Rating:
Summary: Good companion piece to the PBS series.
Review: I missed most of the series on PBS, but what I saw looked very good, much better than the earlier 1900 House. This book is the companion to the TV program and is really better suited to those who have seen it as I found some parts a little confusing due to not having watched most of it.
The book gives a good background on the house itself but is skimpy on the program, reads almost like it is about a real Edwardian family, no details on family selection or what happened after their stay was over.
All of the photographs are very good, the little extra sections on the cast I found interesting (likely would've been better if I'd actually seen the show), the side bits on foods and other items were even interesting.
I did notice that, as in 1900 House, the experts setting up made a surprising blunder, here they forgot to check the possibility that a decades unused chimney might be blocked (which it was). Another thing I found little mention of was the Silver stair railing (does the show mention it?), something so unusal and only a couple of photo captions about it.
Not enough to be a time travelers textbook but a very good companion to the series.

Rating:
Summary: More information about Manor House series
Review: If you share my opinion that Manor House is one of the best reality series, you'll enjoy this book. As thorough as the series was, there are reams or reels or whatever of footage that never made it onto TV, so this book provides more information about Edwardian life, the participants and events of the series. It's an oversize book which unfortunately makes for awkward reading -- and it does have a lot of text that you'll want to read. However, the size makes for good display of photos, including many taken in Edwardian times and even at Manderstone, the house where the series was shot. So you see that they really did dress up in a thousand items of clothing just to watch cricket on the lawn or stroll around the grounds. A fascinating addition to a well-made series. I loved the series and could have watched ten times what they showed on TV and therefore really appreciate this book.

Rating:
Summary: Manor House Backstage
Review: This is an excellent companion to the Manor House series on PBS. It combines the historical background of the Edwardian period, information about each of the participants in the project, recipes and instructions for making items seen in the series, and information that was not shown during the series, such as the story behind the pig's head (and whether Monsieur Dubiard was trying to gross out the Oliff-Coopers) and more about Guy's education (a surprise there!). I only wished it had information on the selection process and what happened after the series ended.

Rating:
Summary: Manor House Backstage
Review: This is an excellent companion to the Manor House series on PBS. It combines the historical background of the Edwardian period, information about each of the participants in the project, recipes and instructions for making items seen in the series, and information that was not shown during the series, such as the story behind the pig's head (and whether Monsieur Dubiard was trying to gross out the Oliff-Coopers) and more about Guy's education (a surprise there!). I only wished it had information on the selection process and what happened after the series ended.