10 h 56 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when war makes a household doubt the servant it has always trusted?
In Good Old Anna, Marie Belloc Lowndes brings the First World War into the home. Anna is a devoted servant, a familiar presence at the centre of a household. But beyond the battles, fear and rumour put ordinary loyalties under pressure. People who believe they know one another begin to feel the strain.
Published in 1915, the novel explores war as a present worry rather than a distant memory. Lowndes turns her skill for suspense towards servants, neighbours, and shared rooms. What is at stake is the trust that makes daily life possible: friendships, familiar bonds, and the ease of living beneath the same roof.
What you’ll discover
- A devoted servant Meet Anna, whose loyalty stands at the heart of a household unsettled by war.
- Suspense close to home Feel unease grow in everyday surroundings as familiar people become objects of doubt.
- Rumour and its consequences Explore how fear tests relationships between people who think they know one another.
- War beyond the battlefield Look closely at strained friendships and broken trust, costs no casualty list can capture.
- A moment still unfolding Read fiction written while the war it explores remains an immediate worry.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy domestic fiction set in wartime England will love these close portraits of a cathedral town. Tender love stories and gathering suspicion bring fresh interest to people who seem entirely ordinary.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A friendly warning as war begins
- Two women, two views of the same war
- A love that begins in a cathedral porch
- A soldier says goodbye and leaves money behind
- A shopkeeper with a new name and a keen interest
- A town that learns to fear and to hope
- Love in middle age and grief in youth
- What war does to a loyal old servant
- What the story is really about
Who’s who
- Mary OtwayA kind, impulsive widow in Witanbury who loves Germany and trusts her German servant completely, and who finds love in an unexpected place.
- Anna BauerMrs. Otway's German cook for eighteen years, thrifty and devoted to Rose, torn between her duty to her mistress and her love of the Fatherland.
- Rose OtwayMary's reserved, clear-headed daughter, who falls in love with Jervis Blake as war begins and learns what courage means.
- Jervis BlakeA big, honest young man who failed the Army examinations and now longs to serve his country as an officer.
- Major GuthrieA shy retired soldier who distrusts Germany, advises Mrs. Otway on money and quietly cares for her far more than he says.
- Manfred HegnerThe shrewd German-born owner of the Witanbury Stores, who takes a friendly interest in Anna and soon calls himself Alfred Head.
- Miss ForsythA blunt, sharp-minded charitable lady who sees danger before others do and cares deeply for Mary and Rose.
- James HayleyA pompous Foreign Office cousin who admires Rose and questions Mary's decision to keep Anna.
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- Audiobook
- 10 h 56 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Die gute alte Anna
by Marie Belloc Lowndes · 1915
A faithful German cook, a Close full of rumors and a shopkeeper who asks too many questions in 1914 Witanbury.
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In short
What do you do with a servant you love when her country becomes your country's enemy? In Good Old Anna, Marie Belloc Lowndes follows a widow and her German cook in a cathedral town in 1914, as war arrives, rumor spreads and friends turn watchful.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A friendly warning as war begins
The novel opens on August 5, 1914, just after England declares war on Germany. Mrs. Otway, a widow of forty-three in the cathedral town of Witanbury, is asked by her old friend Miss Forsyth what she means to do about her good old Anna. The question is the first crack in a calm world.
Mrs. Otway bristles at it. Anna Bauer has served her for eighteen years and nursed her daughter Rose. She cooks, saves and keeps the house in perfect order, and Mrs. Otway thinks of her as a friend more than a servant.
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What is Good Old Anna about?
It follows Mrs. Otway, a widow in the cathedral town of Witanbury, and her German servant Anna Bauer during the first months of the First World War, as friendship, love and suspicion meet in one household.
When is Good Old Anna set?
It begins on August 5, 1914, just after England declares war on Germany, and moves through the following months, including the retreat from Mons, the winter of 1914 and the spring of 1915.
Who is Anna Bauer in the novel?
Anna is Mrs. Otway's German cook of eighteen years, who nursed Rose as a child. She is thrifty, sentimental and devoted to her mistress, but her heart remains with the Fatherland.
The author
Marie Belloc Lowndes
1868–1947 · English mystery novelist
Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868–1947) was an English novelist born in London. She lived in England and wrote novels, biographies, and memoirs. Her novels include The Lodger, published in 1913, and Good Old Anna, published in 1915. She was the sister of the writer Hilaire Belloc.
More by Marie Belloc Lowndes
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