I would like to know the title or author of a book I've read within the last 5 years. The story is about an English Lady aristrocrat in the early 1800"s who for the sake of her health takes her maild and sails for Europe leaving her children and husband in England . The 2 women sail up the Nile to a villa where they will live for the rest of their lives . The Lady sends letters home and the story is built on these letters as well as her private diary and the maid has a story too Does anyone know of this book? Museo

This one?

Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London. But when her debilitating tuberculosis requires healthier climate, she and her lady's maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation, the odd menage marshalled by the resourceful Omar, which travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor. When Lady Duff Gordon undoes her stays and takes to native dress, throwing herself into weekly salons, language lessons, excursions to the tombs, Sally too adapts to a new world, affording her heady and heartfelt freedoms never known before. But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she is mistress of nothing.

In 1862, the real Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon, a well known writer and hostess, traveled to Egypt with her maid. Her letters form the basis for this historical novel.

Mistress Of Nothing by Kate Pullinger - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists