As promised here is a post of what you can do to fill the Downton void!

Read Summerset Abbey and Summerset Abbey: A Bloom in Winter. They’re great books in the same era. (You didn’t think I would start out a blog on Downton alternatives without mentioning my own books did you?) And the covers are lovely. They’re in the sidebar on the right. Go look at them, I’ll wait. Gorgeous, right?

Okay, that’s done. Time for me to talk about some other Downton-esque books and movies you might enjoy.

The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee



When Betsey disembarks from the London train in the seaside resort of Idensea, all she owns is a small valise and a canary in a cage. After attempting to forge a letter of reference she knew would be denied her, Betsey has been fired from the typing pool of her previous employer. Her vigorous protest left one man wounded, another jilted, and her character permanently besmirched. Now, without money or a reference for her promised job, the future looks even bleaker than the debacle behind her. But her life is about to change . . . because a young Welshman on the railroad quay, waiting for another woman, is the one man willing to believe in her.

Mr. Jones is inept in matters of love, but a genius at things mechanical. In Idensea, he has constructed a glittering pier that astounds the wealthy tourists. And in Betsey, he recognizes the ideal tour manager for the Idensea Pier & Pleasure Building Company. After a lifetime of guarding her secrets and breaking the rules, Betsey becomes a force to be reckoned with. Now she faces a challenge of another sort: not only to outrun her sins, but also to surrender to the reckless tides of love…

A Room With a View by EM Forster

Both the book and the movie are luscious visual feasts.

The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye. Though this book isn’t an Edwardian, it is a gorgeous historical that will appeal to anyone who loves epic, sweeping, historical tales.