'Fellowes doesn't try to hide his love of the funny, sealed, above-stairs world of dukes, duchesses, marquesses, nursery maids, herbaceous borders and breakfast kedgeree, all of which makes SNOBS such a a good, fresh read' Daily Telegraph
Edith Lavery is a woman on the make. The attractive only child of a middle-class accountant, she leaves behind her dull job in a Chelsea estate agents and manages to bag one of the most eligible bachelors of the day - Charles Broughton, heir to the Marquess of Uckfield.
But is life amongst the upper echelons of 'good' society all that it seems? Edith soon discovers there's much more to the aristocracy than dancing in Anabel's, shooting small birds and understanding which fork to use at dinner. And then there is Charles's mother, the indomitable Lady Uckfield, or 'Googie' to her friends, who is none too pleased with her son's choice of breeding partner. With twists and turns aplenty, this is a comical tale worthy of a contemporary Jane Austen.
Read MoreA wildly funny novel about aristocrats and social climbers . . . Not since Proust has a novelist worked so hard to decipher the tiny clues that enable toffs to spot the arrivistes who ape their manners - Daily TelegraphSNOBS is everything you would hope for from the writer of GOSFORD PARK. A delicious thoroughbred delight, a guilty treat that is awake toevery maddening and appallingly attractive nuance of English social lifeA cast of rackety aristos and aspiring toffs who might have slipped straight from the pages of a Jane Austen novel; it's spiky, Emma Woodhouse-style asides make SNOBS irresistible - Mail on SundayApart from its virtues as a riveting social history, this is a gripping novel crafted by someone with effortless grasp of character and dialogue that invites generous comparison with Evelyn Waugh - Evening Standard