The Secret Rooms: A True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret

I didn't want to read this, I wanted to absorb it through osmosis. Completely and utterly fascinating. I know the references to Downton Abbey are overused to describe this book, but they do apply.Reading about that period of time is fascinating and hearing it described through letters, documentations and household accounts made it very real. The pomp and circumstance seems so foreign today and the lavish lifestyle completely alien. The distractions and machinations going on behind the scenes during war time defy belief. It would be easy to believe that the accounts of time and energy expended on behalf of a few select aristocrats would be exaggeration, but it's not.The amount of documentation that survived is mind boggling. I hope it is all getting scanned for history's sake. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a work of fiction. I enjoyed reading the author's explanations that accompanied letters. It enabled me to keep the timeline and characters in order. This could have been so confusing but it was not. It was extremely well written and researched. The accompanying photos were wonderful. They do not come across on a regular Kindle well so I used my Kindle for PC app to get a better look at them.I cannot recommend this book enough. It is definitely on my favorite's list. Read. This. Book.

Ninety-nine years have passed since the beginning of WW1, or as it was called at the time, "The Great War". Nearly a century ago, war was sparked by the assassination in Sarajevo in June, 1914, of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Because of the tangled web of alliances, most of the nations in Europe went to war. In Great Britain and the imperial territories, hundreds of thousands of young men gaily joined up to fight for their king and country in a war that was supposed to last only a few months. Four long, dreadful years later, with the fields of France and Belgium turned into trench-laced killing fields, the war was over. An entire generation of young men and the cities and villages they had come from were starkly reminded of the toll the war had taken.British historian Catherine Bailey has written one of the finest books on WW1 that I've read. Her new book, "The Secret Rooms" is a rather melodramatically-titled book about the Manners family - the Dukes of Rutland - and their castle "Belvoir" (pronounced "Beaver"). Bailey had intended to write a book about the Belvoir estate and the affect the war had on its thousands of tenants. However, once she got to work, perusing the war records at the castle, she stumbled upon a more interesting, more personal story. And that's the story she tells in "The Secret Rooms".John Manners, the 9th Duke of Rutland, died in 1940 in a back part of his huge castle. He had sequestered himself in these rooms for a few months before his death at the age of 54, working frantically on his family's legacy. The British government had sent a huge number of boxes of archives to be protected from the German bombing of London, but it was not these records the Duke was interested in. He was interested in his own family's records and he tried to weed out letters and diaries that would obscure a smallish part of his own life and how it related to the lives of his parents and siblings.But what was Rutland trying to hide, and why was he trying to hide it? In her fascinating book, Bailey takes the reader though the last 30 years or so of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th. By looking at these years through the mysteries of the Manners family, the reader is exposed to an amazing recap of both family and societal history.I think the sub-title of the book, "A True Gothic Mystery" might scare some potential readers away. Bailey's book is more - so much more - than a silly story. She truly tells the story of a time and a place and a family. It's a great read. If you're a WW1 buff, please put this on your list.

Before it runs into a boring brick well. All the build-up about missing letters for various periods in the life of the son of the Duke in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century is overblown to reveal a whole lot of nothing.The cause of death of the oldest son of the Duke at age nine was apparently "covered up"...an accident listed as illness. So what? Nothing came to light that the accident was anything sinister. The aristocrats always had their own rules and ways and people did as they were told. The author goes on and about the cruelty and savageness of the younger son, John, being sent away after this death, when sending boy children away at young ages was almost obligatory in the era. Yes, the timing was cruel, yes they resented his living over the favored child, but again, this was not so unusual in the period. It was freely acknowledged that families had "favorite" children at the time. Now, gasps of outrage and probably charges or removal would ensue. It is important to see things in relations to the times.The great big mystery as to why the remaining son John somehow managed to sit out any danger during WWII turns out to be a big yawn...Mama Duchess set out on a campaign to make sure of it. Wow what a shocker-not. Not much different that rich Americans protecting their darling bound-for-Harvard sons during Viet Nam. Why it should be shocking that a young aristocrat is able to avoid danger thanks to Mama? The author tries to make this revelation far more dramatic than it really is. I was expecting a hidden murder, a singular act of cowardice in battle, or a revelation of an improper relationship with his Uncle Charlie, at least.Also, the daughter, Diana Manners, is portrayed as a helpless victim of her scheming mother, when everything else I have read about her shows her well able to control and manipulate people all on her own, no help from Mama needed.The author makes use of italics every time she wants to stress something or make a point, which is annoying, as if the reader is too stupid to recognize important details without being told in this way to take note. This got tedious for me.Overall, though, it is well-written and suspenseful at least in the early portions.

Bought after a visit to Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. What an intriguing true story. Would not have wished to have been born into an aristocratic family... a nightmare to navigate your way through. Book is easy to read, full of stuff, well researched. Full of intrigue, plotting, real life dowager duchesses etc. Highly recommend if you are interested in the landed gentry of the UK, WW1, history etc

I like details of history as a rule, but this exploration of the private affairs of a generally boring family was itself boring. Yes, it is psychologically and socially interesting, but it could have been told in less than 50 pages, I think.

Excellent example of historical writing. Author Catherine Bailey treats not only her subject (the early 20th century history of an English aristocratic family) with a keen and balanced eye as befits a first-rate historian, but equally important she treats the very search itself as an historical subject. If History is an attempt to solve a mystery, tracking down the sources that elucidate the mystery, is a detective tale of its own. Such treatment is rare among historians, most of whom bury the story of their searches in footnotes and acknowledgments. Together with her clear and compelling literary style, Bailey has created a work that will appeal to the general reader as well as to the history buff.

a book which tells a fascinating story...and it is well written and fun to indulge into...on top of it all - fascinating to hear all about the house itself ...

when i purchased this book on kindle , i was fully aware that it is a true story, and i was not expecting a monster of glamis type tale,but iwas a littled influenced by the cover illustation. i was thinking real life downton abbey. not so,i'm afraid. far from being a true gothic tale, it was a deary account of the great war, and just about as exciting as wading grimly through the mud in the trenches.ihad thought that i might go on to read black diamonds,because i do enjoy biographies and social histories, but only if well written, and this was not. it was a stuggle to finish and the only good bit was the photographs.sorry, but i would not recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good yarn, be it true or fictitious.