Books like Behind the scenes by Christina Hardyment

Sisters Vianne and Isabelle are pulled into the turmoil of World War II, each forging a path of courage and resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

Jennifer Egan’s interlocking narratives weave the lives of Bennie Salazar, a former punk rocker turned record executive, and Sasha, a restless young woman, across decades and continents, exploring music, memory and the fragile threads that bind us.

In California’s Central Valley, six friends form a Jane Austen book club, spending six months debating her novels while navigating marriages, affairs, and new love.

Annie McMorrow, a 31‑year‑old assistant, stumbles upon a haunted painting that reveals secrets of past owners and thrusts her into a world of art dealers, auctioneers, and unexpected romance.

This book describes the homes, customs, and habits of seventeenth and eighteenth century North American settlers.

A scholarly exploration of the English country house from the Middle Ages to modern times, examining its architectural evolution, social significance, and cultural impact on Britain's upper classes.

The English cottage is an icon for our times. Whether a harmonious blend of timber-frame and thatch or golden Cotswold stone, it symbolizes country life at its most seductive - a chance to return to the rural Eden that was lost to most of us with the Industrial Revolution. The picture of cottage life is an attractive and enduring one that has fascinated writers and artists for the last two hundred years. But this book shows that life in the English country cottage was far from being the idyll that many of us suppose. From the medieval village right through to the twentieth century, the author traces the history of the cottage, exploring how cottages came to be built, and how their appearance was affected by social forces and changing trends. But the focus is firmly on people: how cottage dwellers spent their time, how they were treated by their social superiors, what they ate and where they slept, and how they decorated and furnished their homes. Life in the English Country Cottage is a history of both the myth and the reality of life for the majority of the population over the last seven centuries.