Maid in Waiting, published in 1931, is the first novel in John Galsworthy's trilogy End of the Chapter. End of the Chapter is a sequel to The Forsyte Saga and A Modern Comedy. In 2003, The Forsyte Saga was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel".

The Forsyte Saga chronicles the vicissitudes of the leading members of a large commercial upper middle-class English family. Only a few generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are keenly aware of their status as "new money". A titanic masterpiece - nine hundred pages of a multi-generational story of a fictional English family that spans the Victorian, Edwardian, and post-World War I eras. It's the story of the Forsyte family, spanning several generations and several wars, and its obsession with "property."

End of the Chapter comprises three novels; Maid in Waiting, Flowering Wilderness and Over the River (also known as One More River). End of the Chapter chiefly deals with Michael Mont's young cousin, Dinny Cherrell.

After the first trilogy, The Forsyte Saga, Galsworthy wrote two additional sequels (also each a trilogy); A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter, which form what is commonly referred to as The Forsyte Cronicles.

John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932. The Nobel committee usually gives the prize for a lifetime of work, but in their decision, they specifically noted that Galsworthy deserved the prize “for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga.”