«The Bellamy Saga» by John Pearson

First published in 1976, this fictional biography is the intimate and detailed portrait of the celebrated Bellamy family of Upstairs, Downstairs.No family in the past century – excepting perhaps the Forsytes – has been so dramatically exposed to public stare as the Bellamys of Eaton Place. Drawing from the diaries of Richard Bellamy, the personal letters of Lady Majorie, the Southwold Papers in the British Museum, as well as his own friendship with James Bellamy and his conversations with Mrs. Elizabeth (Bellamy) Wallace shortly before her recent death in New York City, John Pearson has written a sensitive and finely detailed portrait of this patrician English family. The Bellamys could not have anticipated the extraordinary interest that their lives have generated in Europe and America through the award-winning television series Upstairs, Downstairs. Here, Mr. Pearson chronicles the Bellamys' complex, stormy, and passionate lives during the years between 1884 and 1929, when they reigned at 165 Eaton Place. An exciting and intriguing narrative in its own right, The Bellamy Saga is also a tribute to the surviving relatives and friends who consented – although some of them did so reluctantly – to relinquish much of the privacy they cherish.