Long Live the King: A Novel (Habits of the House)

From Booklist His balance sheet firmly back in the black thanks to the machinations of his solicitor, Eric Baum, Lord Dilberne, can now turn his attentions to more pressing affairs of state, especially the upcoming coronation of King Edward VII. There are grouse to be shot and golf to be played, and his wife, Isobel, must advise both family and the court on the proper amount of ermine to trim the royal robes. And then there’s the matter of the coveted extra tickets to the event itself: Should they go to the socially unacceptable Baums or to Lord Dilberne’s estranged brother Edwin and his family? Isobel makes a potentially awkward decision, unaware that Edwin has died. His now-orphaned teenage daughter, Adela, then falls prey to a pair of con artists out to capitalize on the gentry’s fascination with spiritualism. Teeming with tasty tidbits about royals great and small, Weldon’s second installment in her Dilberne Court trilogy, following Habits of the House (2013), gives devoted Anglophiles a whirlwind tour upstairs, downstairs, and all around the castle. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Promotional efforts will be redoubled as acclaimed author Weldon’s delicious series continues. --Carol Haggas “Weldon remains at the top of her game with [Long Live the King ]....Fans of Downton Abbey will relish this rich and witty comedy of manners.” ― Star Tribune “Teeming with tasty tidbits about royals great and small, Weldon's second installment in her Dilberne Court trilogy gives devoted Anglophiles a whirlwind tour upstairs, downstairs, and all around the castle.” ― Booklist on Long Live the King “Before there was DOWNTON ABBEY, there was UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS and, having written the first episode of that iconic television series, it is only fitting that Weldon now returns to the scene of the crime to further explore the disparate worlds of “them that has and those what serve ’em.”... Always a ripe target for mockery and disdain, the British aristocracy comes in for a thorough drubbing in Weldon’s snarky send-up.” ― Booklist “My favorite part of the original series is the first episode because it was written by a great English novelist, Fay Weldon. Everybody was introduced so cleverly . . . so beautifully established.” ― Jean Marsh, co-creator of Upstairs, Downstairs “There is simply no touching Weldon as a writer.” ― The Observer (UK) “Fay Weldon has always examined the scary parts of what lies beneath the silk cushions and behind the closed gates.” ― The Chronicle of Higher Education “I was a girl from Downstairs. When I was 16, my bedroom was in the basement of a posh house in London, where my mother was the housekeeper. . . . Odd, this class business. Here's Upstairs Downstairs back again, Downton Abbey so popular.” ― Fay Weldon FAY WELDON is a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who, at the age of 16, lived in a grand London townhouse as the daughter of the housekeeper. In addition to winning a Writers' Guild Award for the pilot of Upstairs Downstairs, she is a Commander of the British Empire whose books include Praxis, shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; The Heart of the Country, winner of the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize; Worst Fears, shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award; and Wicked Women, which won the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award. She lives in England. Read more