About the Author

MARGARET POWELL was born in 1907 in Hove, and left school at the age of 13 to start working. At 14, she got a job in a hotel laundry room, and a year later went into service as a kitchen maid, eventually progressing to the position of cook, before marrying a milkman called Albert. In 1968 the first volume of her memoirs, Below Stairs, was published to instant success and turned her into a celebrity. She died in 1984.

Reviews

"...I suspect the real story of the relationship of servants to their masters is more accurately told by Margaret Powell in her simple and quite brilliant "Below Stairs"..."What makes Powell such a credible narrator is the fact that she's never reflexively bitter or nasty. When she worked for a family that treated her with kindness... she was deeply grateful... Below Stairs retains its peculiar fascination." --The New York Times on Below Stairs "An irresistible inside account of life "in service" and a fascinating document of a vanished time and place." --Kirkus Reviews on Below Stairs "[A] sharply observed memoir... stands out in the tradition of literature about servants for being a true account...although the incidents are as vividly entertaining and disturbing as anything found in fiction." --Wall Street Journal on Below Stairs "Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world ...I certainly owe her a great debt." --Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey on Below Stairs