Below stairs : the classic kitchen maid's memoir that inspired "Upstairs, downstairs" and "Downton Abbey"

Review

Are you missing Downton Abbey?  To tide you over, check out this simple and charming memoir of a life spent in service from the kitchen maid who inspired the Upstairs Downstairs series.  Feisty Margaret Powell, born in 1907, left school at thirteen in order to start earning money, and through sheer ambition advanced from lowly kitchen maid (one of her duties was to iron bootlaces) to the position of cook before marrying her milkman husband, Albert.  Published in 1968, Below Stairs was an instant hit and brought her celebrity status.