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Servant’s Hall: A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance
Margaret Powell
2013, 184 pages
Nonfiction
If you love Downton Abbey (or the earlier Upstairs, Downstairs) and you wonder how accurate these period television shows are, then this is the book for you. Margaret Powell went into service as a kitchenmaid (like Daisy) in 1922 at the age of 15. By 1925 Margaret has gotten her first job as a cook for the Wardham Family, and you’ll hear all about under-parlourmaid Rose who eloped with the family’s only son (sort of role reversal of Lady Sybil and Mr. Branson). Did Rose have the fairy tale life the servants all thought marrying up might offer? Margaret’s reminiscences make the period after the Great War come alive. She is no shrinking violet – she’s an independent thinker, but like her fellow female servants, her one goal is to find herself a husband. Her memories are witty, charming and painful, but always entertaining.
This book was originally published in England in 1979 as the sequel to her memoir Below Stairs (92 POWELL).
