Margaret Powell, “Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir that inspired ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Downton Abbey.’” New York: St. Martin’s Press. 212pp. $22.99.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES. MONDAY MARCH 19 2012
By Martin Rubin
For a view of what such a life was actually like for the servants who made gracious living possible for their employers, it is hard to beat Margaret Powell’s hard-headed, unsentimental memoir. And it is all the more amazing because she did not toil in a huge, aristocratic pile but in upper middle-class households. Here, even after the First World War, which so shook up the pecking order at Downton Abbey, these relatively modest establishments employed a staggering number of domestic servants:
“Compared to some of the other houses I worked in, there weren’t so many. There was a butler; a parlourmaid instead of a footman; two housemaids – upper and under; a governess; and a gardener/chauffeur; the cook and me.”
But when you realize that, as kitchen maid (admittedly the lowest position in the house), Powell received only 2 pounds (then under 10 dollars) a month, you see why the Reverend Clydesdale and his demanding wife could run to such an establishment. Three course luncheons and five or six course dinners, featuring the choicest provisions, were de rigueur. . . .
For Martin’s full review, click here or visit washingtontimes.com.