Anna, a young countess, has lived in the glittering city of St Petersburg all her life in an ice-blue palace overlooking the River Neva. But when revolution tears Russia apart, her now-penniless family is forced to flee to England. Armed with an out-of-date book on housekeeping, Anna determines to become a housemaid and she finds work at the Earl of Westerholme’s crumbling but magnificent mansion. The staff and the family are sure there is something not quite right about their new maid – but she soon wins them over with her warmth and dedication.

Then the young Earl returns home from the war – and Anna falls hopelessly in love. But they can never be together: Rupert is engaged to the snobbish and awful Muriel – and anyway, Anna is only a servant. Or so everybody thinks . . .

Product Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781447280101

Publisher

Macmillan Children's Books

Date published

March 26th, 2015

Lexile measure

1060L Lexiles are the global standard in reading assessment. They are unique as they are able to measure a child and a book on the same scale – ensuring the right book gets to the right child at the right time.

For more details see What is a lexile?.

Condition

New

Author/Illustrator

Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson is the award-winning author of many books for children and adults. She has a daughter and three sons, who showed her that children like to read about ghosts, wizards, and witches “because they are just like people but madder and more interesting.”

She was born in Vienna, in Austria, but moved to England with her family when the Nazis came to power. After training to be a physiologist which she didn’t enjoy because she didn’t like doing experiments on animals, Eva got married and had four very nice children.

Her first children’s book, The Great Ghost Rescue was published in 1975, and she is best known for titles like Journey to the River Sea and The Dragonfly Pool. Eva died in 2010, aged 85.