Book Review: ‘Mrs England’ by Stacey Halls

Stacey Halls is rapidly becoming the go-to author for period dramas. After I kept spotting her novels in my local bookshops I decided to give one a try. Mrs England is her third novel. From what I can tell, Halls’ books appear to be stand-alone novels which is great for new readers like me.

Mrs England is a historical Edwardian-era drama set primarily in West Yorkshire. The story is told from the point of view of a fictional young woman, Ruby May, who is a trained nanny from the real-life Norland Institute (today known as both the Norland Agency and Norland College).

After refusing to travel to America with her current family, Ruby is sent to the remote West Yorkshire countryside to nanny for the England family and their children. With Mr Charles England running the household and Mrs Lillian England hidden away in her rooms, Ruby struggles to know what to make of this unusual family.

What starts out as a simple assignment becomes more complex and increasingly dangerous as Ruby is forced to navigate both the internal politics of the England family and the social minefield of the upper and lower classes of the local community. All the while Ruby is desperate that a terrible family secret of her own should remain buried forever.

I don’t normally read period dramas but I found myself really enjoying the book. Halls’ style of writing is easy to read and I felt that the plot had the right amount of twists and suspense moments to be entertaining without over-complicating the plot as Ruby (and myself) learn more about the backstories of the Englands and their staff. I found Halls was also able to continually keep the plot moving forward without making the story feel rushed.

Something I kept asking myself whilst reading was: Is Ruby May a strong protagonist or not? There are definitely times when she is naïve about the intensions of others. Her obedience, her natural inclination towards following the rules and her need to do things properly all mean that Ruby is not the typical strong-willed heroine. However she is, at her core, an overall good and caring person. Ruby’s devotion to her duties is actually one of her strengths because it means she is fiercely loyal to the children in her care. I was never in any doubt that she would put the wellbeing of the children first even if it brought her into conflict with other characters. I think that Ruby has a quiet strength, in part due to her role as nanny which technically rests outside of the servants hierarchy. She is able to move relatively freely through her new environment and make subtle investigations when she suspects something more untoward may be happening inside the England house.

The novel is called Mrs England so I was expected big things from the titular character. From the start I felt the novel was setting her up to be the ‘mad woman in the attic’ character trope and I was reminded of Mrs Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Charles England describes his wife as being too ill to leave her rooms and he is visibly uncomfortable when she is forced to attend social events and interacts with the children. In the first half of the novel she is heard rather than seen. In Ruby’s earlier encounters with Mrs England the older woman seems to drift in and out of scenes which makes it intentionally difficult to form an opinion of her outside of what we learn from the other characters. Her presence is felt more in the second half of the novel when she visits the nursery more regularly. The main mystery of the book revolves around Ruby (and the reader) deciding which the two Englands we can trust once we’ve gotten to know both characters. Is Mr England genuinely trying to protect his wife and the rest of the family or is he the puppet master controlling all the moving parts in the house?

As I’ve said, I don’t typically go for this genre of book but I’m glad I did. Mrs England is an entertaining read with the story placing a single household and family under a microscope. It definitely made me want to read more of Stacey Halls’ novels.

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