Honestly, the reason I could not wait to read Below Stairs by Margaret Powell was because of its subtitle: “The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey.”

Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey are popular TV series that illustrate the mostly dramatic life in British upper families and their household helpers in post Edwardian era.

I crossed over Below Stairs for two book clubs that I joined, The Kitchen Reader and Foodies Read 2014.  

The book, first published in 1968, is a memoir by Margaret Powell who left school and started working at age 13 in the 1920s, learned her rope as a kitchen maid and became a cook at age 18.

The first 30 pages described Margaret’s life as the second of 7 children in a poor family but living happily in Hove on the south coast of England.

She worked in more than a dozen jobs including the laundry room until the age of 15 when she entered domestic service as a kitchen maid since Margaret disliked needlework.

The next 120 pages of the book is an account of a miserable life working at the basements of houses in Hove and in London as a kitchen maid, in her own words: “the lowest and the lowliest paid servant.”

It is heart breaking to read how Margaret, barely a kid herself, scrubbing stone floors, washing plates, pots and pans in greasy water, and cleaning bloody hares and rabbits. During one month of spring-cleaning she had to work 15-hour days without extra money.

Although I sympathize with the sufferings of the household helpers, and Margaret’s quest in finding a husband to free herself from service, those were not what interest me about the book.

I was more interested in Margaret’s story on how she acquired her cooking skills and eventually was able to prepare a 7-course dinners.

Margaret stressed in the book: “….. if you wanted to be a cook and you have no money to pay for training, the only way you could learn to be one was by starting as a kitchen maid.”

After working 3 years as a kitchen maid under a stern cook, Margaret confidently applied as a cook herself at the age of 18.

She wrote: “It’s a funny thing, but the less cooking you know how to do, the more competent you feel. It’s only when you know how to cook that it worries you when it goes wrong, because if you don’t know, you don’t know it’s gone wrong.”

Around 80 pages of Below Stairs covers Margaret’s life as a cook. At first she only knew how to cook vegetables and made sauces but relied on Mrs. Beeton’s Cookbook. Published in 1861, it is actually titled Book of Household Management and contains almost 2000 recipes in total.

The last 28 pages of Below Stairs, centers around Margaret’s family life after she married a milkman, Albert Powell.

As a newlywed Margaret cooked fancy dishes to which Albert responded: “ Not bad, old girl, but I’d just soon have fish and chips.”

Margaret contemplated: “….. people who paint, sculpt, or write books want an audience, that’s the reason they’re doing it for, and it’s the same when you’re a cook. You need somebody who savours it, not one who just says: Oh, it’s not bad.”

She decided to continue her education to be on par with her children in knowledge. She passed her O level, the basic level of the General Certificate of Education that students normally finish at 16, when she was 58 years old.

Margaret Powell published Below Stairs when she was 61 years old, wrote 16 more books, became a popular author and was frequently invited on television talk shows.  

I finished reading the book from cover to cover and did some internet research, but could not find information on how Below Stairs inspired the TV Series Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey.

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Shutterstock: Couple- Velora; House- Dutour Dumonde Photography; Maid- Victorian Traditions

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