A History of Private Life - Servants

Historian Amanda Vickery presents a series which reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years. She draws on first-hand accounts from letters and diaries, many of which have never been heard before. Including songs which have been specially recorded for the series. When we think of the history of home, the cosy experiences of the nuclear family spring easiest to mind. But what of those who had no family or home of their own? Many servants in the 18th century didn't even have a bed of their own, sleeping in passageways or across their masters' doors like guard dogs. And maids were notoriously vulnerable to sexually predatory men, to their master's droit de seigneur. Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak. Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard. A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.