Below Stairs
Posthumously reprinted to coincide with the upsurge in interest in the Edwardian era due to the popularity of the television serials Downton Abbey and the updated Upstairs Downstairs, this book is the first volume of the memoirs of a real-life 1920s kitchen maid.
Born into a large, impoverished family in Hove in 1907, Margaret Powell nonetheless had aspirations to better herself. Forced to give up a scholarship and leave school at 13, she eventually found work as a kitchen maid, the lowliest, most overworked and worst paid of all domestic servants.
With humour and a sharp eye for detail, Margaret Powell exposes the true nature of the relationships between servants and good and bad employers. She is never afraid of having a laugh at her own inadequacies and mistakes as she blags her way to her dream job as a cook and searches amongst tradesmen and the frequenters of dance halls for a suitable husband. Informative and tremendous fun.
