Part memoir, part how-to, A Butler's Life -- the account of Christopher Allen’s real-life duties Behind The Silver Salver-- offers a contemporary peek into this fascinating, yet demanding profession.

Those for whom the mental picture of a British butler is the impeccable Jeeves or Remains of the Day’s prim Mr. Stevens will find Christopher Allen a surprise and a delight. The engaging Englishman, while no less a paragon of service than his literary peers, is charmingly human in his ongoing endeavor to master a profession whose most perfect representative is invisible.

And, for those whose homes might not be staffed with live-in servants but who would enjoy benefiting from their expertise, nearly two dozen sidebars reveal tips of the trade--everything from hints for seamless entertaining to advice on household management.

Far from a relic of a past era, Christopher Allen demonstrates that being a butler -- in villas on the Cote d’Azur and in California, on luxury yachts in England and estates in the Hamptons -- is still a very viable, rewarding way to make a living in the twenty-first century.

"Donaldson's skill is really a rare and fine art everyone who is interested in twentieth-century fiction or in the art of biography or in the mysterious relationship between the temperament of an artist and the work he produces should have By Force of Will within arm's reach. In its way it is a masterpiece."
-Walter Sullivan, The Sewanee Review

"Not the least of its virtues is the way in which it allows its reader to play along with a masterly scholarly detective."
-The San Francisco Sunday Examiner

"Full of gusto and great joy for living of life, which is what growing up Italian means. A fascinating narrative of delight."

——Jack Valenti, president, Motion Pictures Association of America

“I was extremely touched by these reminiscences. It is a wonderful book, a great book."

——Leda Sanford, publisher, Attenzione magazine

This book is unique in the literature on the mutiny and is the first companion volume to the story. The first part, the Bounty Chronicle, gives a panoramic, yet detailed, month-by-month account of the events, starting before the Bounty’s departure and ending with Fletcher Christian’s death on Pitcairn Island. It even chronicles Captain Bligh’s second breadfruit expedition of which so many people are unaware.

“Let me tell you, dear heart, it can happen that you go through life without knowing under your very nose there is a book in which your life is described in the minutest detail. What you have never even noticed before, you gradually remember, as you start reading such a book, and find out and discover... some books you read and read and you can’t make head or tail of them, however much you try. It is so damn clever that you can’t understand a word of it... But you read a book like that and feel as though you had written it yourself, just as though – how shall I put it? – as though you had taken possession of your own heart – whatever it might be – had turned it inside out for people to see, and described it all in detail – that’s how it is! And how simple it is, good Lord! Why, I could have written it myself! Why, indeed, shouldn’t I have written it myself!”

from Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

These are the unacknowledged legislators; music-makers, “movers and shakers”, poets who have influenced our ideas, affected our emotions and enriched our language. The chapters not only tell the stories of their lives but also relate their lives to their poems and reveal how and why they wrote the way they did. This work aims to show what the poets meant to the development of literature and, most of all, what they mean to us.

A mother tells her story and explains how she took control of her son's future by creating her own therapy, sharing with other parents how she was able to determine what her son needed and then how to implement those needs into lessons he could understand. Gain insight into the ways in which you can begin providing your own therapy for your child or choosing to home school if that is your wish.

If you have a child that has not been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder but you suspect they might be autistic, learn the diagnostic criteria used by professionals in diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders.

A mother tells her story and explains how she took control of her son's future by creating her own therapy, sharing with other parents how she was able to determine what her son needed and then how to implement those needs into lessons he could understand. Gain insight into the ways in which you can begin providing your own therapy for your child or choosing to home school if that is your wish.

If you have a child that has not been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder but you suspect they might be autistic, learn the diagnostic criteria used by professionals in diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders.