Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS on January 8. The return is heralded on NPR’s All Things Considered.

NPR talks to Jessica Fellows, the author of a companion book, The World of Downton Abbey. She describes the extraordinary changes that occurred during the period of the show, just before and during WW I. She says part of the fascination of  this era is the remarkable changes it brought for women, “So many men got called up to war, far more than ever before…girls [like those in the series] had had a very mapped out future — they’d be at home, have the coming-out season, then they would be debutantes, then they would find the right man and go off  to run a country house somewhere. Suddenly, that all changed.”

The World of Downton Abbey Jessica Fellowes Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Macmillan/ St. Martin’s – (2011-12-06) ISBN / EAN: 1250006341 / 9781250006349

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Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

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