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Climbing the Stairs: Further Tales of a 1920s Kitchen Maid
From the grand houses of Brighton to imposing London mansions, life as a kitchen maid could be exhausting and demoralising. It's not just being at the beck and call of the people upstairs, when even the children of the family can treat you like dirt, but having to deal with temperamental cooks, starchy butlers and chauffeurs with a roving eye.
Marriage is the only escape, but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) and Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks - and smells - a bit like his wares), her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams.
But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? And can she make the perfect wife when, as she soon discovers, years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder - how can someone like her ever improve their station?
Told with her trademark wit and warmth, Climbing the Stairs is a unique, sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters and servants began to lose its sway, and of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands.
Marriage is the only escape, but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) and Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks - and smells - a bit like his wares), her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams.
But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? And can she make the perfect wife when, as she soon discovers, years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder - how can someone like her ever improve their station?
Told with her trademark wit and warmth, Climbing the Stairs is a unique, sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters and servants began to lose its sway, and of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands.
199 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1969
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319 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Powell
50 books57 followersMargaret Powell (1907 – 1984) was an English writer. Her book about her experiences in domestic service, Below Stairs, became a best-seller and she went on to write other books and became a television personality. Below Stairs was an impetus for Upstairs, Downstairs and the basis of Beryl's Lot, and is one of the inspirations of Downton Abbey.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
September 23, 2015
Curiosity, rather than reputation (plus an irresistible price of 10p) prompted me to buy this book; despite my having read her previous book, “Below Stairs”. Highly self-opinionated and critical of others; Margaret Powell initially does not come across at all attractively. Obsessions below stairs made me feel positively sorry for her employers. However, Margaret was at least sufficiently cool-headed to weigh up the potentially advantageous economic benefits to her of setting her cap at an English fishmonger in preference to a foreigner; whilst she (unintentionally?) humorously observes, “So I continued to cultivate him, to sort of get closer to him, though the all-pervading odour of fish that hung around him was hardly an inducement for closer proximity.” (p.68).
Setting aside Margaret’s somewhat unattractive, but survivalist, street-fighter persona, by half-way through this book, in a Professor Henry Higgins’-ish sort of a way I began to find her curiously interesting. Once married, she extends her no-holds-barred critical observations to Berwick and Leather Lane markets (London), life as married to a milkman, a six roomed house in Hove (Sussex) for a pound a week during WW2 & lots of Canadian soldiers; the new National Health Service, a foreign (European) holiday, children, the joy of public libraries, and more. Yet she leaves her reader entirely in the dark as to what paths in life her three sons took in Life.
On the surface at least, confidence is clearly not something Margaret was ever short of. Her observations on the social changes in English pubs are forthright but thoughtful. Most fascinatingly, right at the end of this book she describes a tour round Woburn Abbey conducted by its owner, the Duke of Bedford. She ends with an astute observation: “He showed me that in spite of all my talk about ‘them up there and us below stairs,’ if one can possibly associate with them, one does so – which makes us all really snobs at heart, or perhaps just ordinary mortals.” Yep, I thought; ordinary mortals, just as we’re reminded of by so many a wealthy man’s sculptured monument within the timelessness of an English country church.
Setting aside Margaret’s somewhat unattractive, but survivalist, street-fighter persona, by half-way through this book, in a Professor Henry Higgins’-ish sort of a way I began to find her curiously interesting. Once married, she extends her no-holds-barred critical observations to Berwick and Leather Lane markets (London), life as married to a milkman, a six roomed house in Hove (Sussex) for a pound a week during WW2 & lots of Canadian soldiers; the new National Health Service, a foreign (European) holiday, children, the joy of public libraries, and more. Yet she leaves her reader entirely in the dark as to what paths in life her three sons took in Life.
On the surface at least, confidence is clearly not something Margaret was ever short of. Her observations on the social changes in English pubs are forthright but thoughtful. Most fascinatingly, right at the end of this book she describes a tour round Woburn Abbey conducted by its owner, the Duke of Bedford. She ends with an astute observation: “He showed me that in spite of all my talk about ‘them up there and us below stairs,’ if one can possibly associate with them, one does so – which makes us all really snobs at heart, or perhaps just ordinary mortals.” Yep, I thought; ordinary mortals, just as we’re reminded of by so many a wealthy man’s sculptured monument within the timelessness of an English country church.
July 17, 2015
This is the third book I have read by Margaret Powell,I would give this a 3.5. All three of her books are memoirs. I think I liked her first book "Below Stairs" the best.her first two memoirs focused on what it was like to work in the big houses in the 1920s. This book if you look at the cover is a bit misleading.part of the title went on to say "Further Tales of a 1920s kitchen Maid" I thought this third installment offered more tidbits of her life working for the big houses. She actually only writes briefly about working in these houses. this book is more what happens in her life after she quit being a maid and cook. it is pretty interesting though. Here she writes about her husband, Alfred, snippets from her life, such as going to pubs with her spouse, Getting through world war 2. her three sons although she never mentions their names. Going to college in her fifties.etc.
She could have a sense of humor in her writing, not shy about saying what or who she disliked when she worked in the big houses{such as the nannies who also worked there} I still found parts of Margaret Powell's third memoir of interest. It is a historical lesson of life from the 1920s up to the 1960s. she wrote this book in 1969. I think after the success of Downton Abbey,many books on the subject of working below stairs came back into print. Glad they did.
She could have a sense of humor in her writing, not shy about saying what or who she disliked when she worked in the big houses{such as the nannies who also worked there} I still found parts of Margaret Powell's third memoir of interest. It is a historical lesson of life from the 1920s up to the 1960s. she wrote this book in 1969. I think after the success of Downton Abbey,many books on the subject of working below stairs came back into print. Glad they did.
February 20, 2013
Clever of the publishers and Ms Powell to extend her brand. Unfortunately, there's very little of interest in this book, even less of her time in service.
January 9, 2024
Its like what having a conversation with your grandmother would be like. Except your grandmother was born into Edwardian England. I would not recommend reading this one if you haven't read "Below Stairs" first, you miss a lot of what Margaret was about and who she was otherwise. What a cozy read
December 16, 2017
Meh.
More than a continuation of Powell's memoirs, this is a re-hashing and embroidering of some of the stories told in Below Stairs. The narration is scrappy and jumps back and forth, from the time of writing (the 1960s) to when she first went to London, to when she was in her fifties, back to before she married...I was dizzy just trying to remember when we were. The version of some of her "married life" anecdotes is as wildly different to the story in the first book as some of the "servant life" ones. When she dragged in The Curler Story with a terribly, terribly unbelievable sequel, the words "unreliable narrator" started to wander in and out of my brain as I read.
Her arrogance is on show from page 1, typical of a certain stripe of British retiree I know so well, who wants to have their holidays in the sun as long as they can eat their own food, read their own newspapers, watch their own TV shows and mock the country and people they are visiting for being not like them. After all, She Knows Best, whether it's food, beer, manners or anything else. This is the woman who says that she married her husband because he was there, cheerful, and liked drinking. And then moans about modern pubs!
The woman who so derides ex-servants who continue to name-drop about the titled people they used to work for, and for pages and pages and pages and pages of both books shows her strong proletarian (or anyway, anti-rich) instincts--yet by the end of the book she is slobbering all over the Duke of Woburn who invites her (well anyway the BBC, with her fronting as "interviewer") to his stately home, and enthuses over the same furnishings and dustcatchers that she so disliked when it was up to her to dust them. She was even irate that the director of the programme didn't let her stay to lunch--quite a change from her "oh these people, they think their shit doesn't stink" attitude just a chapter or so before.
By the end of the book I just wanted to smack her, three ways: hard, fast, and continuously!
More than a continuation of Powell's memoirs, this is a re-hashing and embroidering of some of the stories told in Below Stairs. The narration is scrappy and jumps back and forth, from the time of writing (the 1960s) to when she first went to London, to when she was in her fifties, back to before she married...I was dizzy just trying to remember when we were. The version of some of her "married life" anecdotes is as wildly different to the story in the first book as some of the "servant life" ones. When she dragged in The Curler Story with a terribly, terribly unbelievable sequel, the words "unreliable narrator" started to wander in and out of my brain as I read.
Her arrogance is on show from page 1, typical of a certain stripe of British retiree I know so well, who wants to have their holidays in the sun as long as they can eat their own food, read their own newspapers, watch their own TV shows and mock the country and people they are visiting for being not like them. After all, She Knows Best, whether it's food, beer, manners or anything else. This is the woman who says that she married her husband because he was there, cheerful, and liked drinking. And then moans about modern pubs!
The woman who so derides ex-servants who continue to name-drop about the titled people they used to work for, and for pages and pages and pages and pages of both books shows her strong proletarian (or anyway, anti-rich) instincts--yet by the end of the book she is slobbering all over the Duke of Woburn who invites her (well anyway the BBC, with her fronting as "interviewer") to his stately home, and enthuses over the same furnishings and dustcatchers that she so disliked when it was up to her to dust them. She was even irate that the director of the programme didn't let her stay to lunch--quite a change from her "oh these people, they think their shit doesn't stink" attitude just a chapter or so before.
By the end of the book I just wanted to smack her, three ways: hard, fast, and continuously!
May 15, 2015
Margaret Powell's first book--Below Stairs--is much better than this sequel. She does add some interesting details regarding how she met her husband. Unfortunately, the book suffers from bad editing as she repeats many of the same stories from the first book. I read many memoirs, and I can't think of another memoir where so many of the same tales are repeated in a second volume.
September 11, 2016
Mildly amusing, but not essential unless you're really interested in the early 20th century class system. I sometimes wonder if domestic service was really more or less oppressive than a minimum wage retail or industrial job is now. She was a very determined lady though. I can say that some of my older family members have or had a similarity un-romantic view of life.
April 16, 2012
This was a do not finish for me, not because the book was bad, but simply because I was as interested in Powell's life outside services as I thought I would be while reading "Below Stairs."
November 5, 2019
Do you have an older aunt? One who will talk to you and tell you things that you would never hear your parents say? In “Climbing the Stairs” Margaret Powell reminds me of that aunt or cherished older neighbor or friend who regales you with stories from the past that are filled with her observations and opinions. Powell is surprisingly open-minded, though she does have her prejudices she also shows an incredible wisdom which we do not often associate of those who were once in domestic service. I would have enjoyed taking tea with Mrs. Powell. If you enjoy that sort of discussion or learning about women in the first half of the 20th century then you will enjoy this book.
April 4, 2020
Not as many maid stories in this one, but many about her personal life and insights. I thoroughly enjoyed her cheerful perspectives. I’ve enjoyed all three of her memoirs and they are enjoyable. I read them as my winding down at night reading material.
*Note: This one has a lot of sex talk, but it’s like a conversation with your gal pal.
*Note: This one has a lot of sex talk, but it’s like a conversation with your gal pal.
March 5, 2025
Spunky and interesting.
June 19, 2015
Ricordate Below Stairs, il libro che è stato _fra altri_ di ispirazione a Fellowes per la creazione della bellissima serie Downton Abbey e che ho letto e recensito a marzo di quest'anno? Climbing the Stairs è il seguito. Margaret continua a raccontare la sua storia: dall'arrivo a Londra con i primi appuntamenti al matrimonio con Albert, passando per tutta una serie di notevoli episodi, come i suoi ricoveri in ospedale (il secondo del quale per cancro), l'iscrizione alla scuola per ottenere il diploma, le prime vacanze all'estero.
Rispetto a Below Stairs mi sembra manchi qualcosa in questo memoir, forse è il fatto che Margaret non si concentra più tanto sulle avventure e disavventure di una vita a servizio, ma più che altro sulla spasmodica ricerca di un marito. Ricerca a tratti talmente surreale da provocare fastidio, nonostante la consapevolezza che all'epoca ragazze non istruite e senza soldi schiavizzate da un lavoro pesantissimo e da numerosissime relative limitazioni alla loro libertà personale, non potessero che sognare una vita da casalinga, di fatto l'unica chance che avessero. Per contro mi ha fatto molto ridere l'approccio no-nonsense di Margaret agli uomini e alla vita di coppia, nonché la candida ammissione di non essere mai stata un granché, consapevolezza che non le ha mai impedite di pretendere un suo standard di vita. Forse mi ha intristito l'inizio del matrimonio con Albert, così privo di passione e sentimento (ma dobbiamo davvero crederci?) che però d'altra parte sembra aver avuto un gran successo.
La voce di Margaret è davvero impagabile: onesta e pragmatica, non si tira indietro davanti a niente. Forse in qualche caso, la sua assertività diventa un tantino eccessiva, al punto che mi è venuto il dubbio fosse ironia (il dubbio mi è rimasto). Al di là di questo è davvero interessante leggere il resoconto in prima persona (e apparentemente per nulla edulcorato) di una vita davvero diversa e lontana dalla mia.
http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...
Rispetto a Below Stairs mi sembra manchi qualcosa in questo memoir, forse è il fatto che Margaret non si concentra più tanto sulle avventure e disavventure di una vita a servizio, ma più che altro sulla spasmodica ricerca di un marito. Ricerca a tratti talmente surreale da provocare fastidio, nonostante la consapevolezza che all'epoca ragazze non istruite e senza soldi schiavizzate da un lavoro pesantissimo e da numerosissime relative limitazioni alla loro libertà personale, non potessero che sognare una vita da casalinga, di fatto l'unica chance che avessero. Per contro mi ha fatto molto ridere l'approccio no-nonsense di Margaret agli uomini e alla vita di coppia, nonché la candida ammissione di non essere mai stata un granché, consapevolezza che non le ha mai impedite di pretendere un suo standard di vita. Forse mi ha intristito l'inizio del matrimonio con Albert, così privo di passione e sentimento (ma dobbiamo davvero crederci?) che però d'altra parte sembra aver avuto un gran successo.
La voce di Margaret è davvero impagabile: onesta e pragmatica, non si tira indietro davanti a niente. Forse in qualche caso, la sua assertività diventa un tantino eccessiva, al punto che mi è venuto il dubbio fosse ironia (il dubbio mi è rimasto). Al di là di questo è davvero interessante leggere il resoconto in prima persona (e apparentemente per nulla edulcorato) di una vita davvero diversa e lontana dalla mia.
http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...
October 30, 2018
I expected to learn a lot more from the book about 1920s than I did. This is a book that is a constellation of anecdotes written by the author. More or less of which is considered a memoir. Still, I felt that connection lacking in it. I am a vivid non fiction reader, especially memoirs and autobiographies fascinate me. However, this one didn't. I got educated on some new vocabulary and 1920s Uk. Unlike my exoextation, didn't throughly enjoyed it. Also, as the blurb says that this book is about Margaret's love life and how she lived her life as a kitchen maid. However, the book hardly had one chapter on her dating the other guy and then one chapter of hoe she got married to the milkman, which is not even a syspense. So I expected a story, there was none!
A fair 2/5 🌟 for me.
Read my complete reviews on Www.areebaflaunts.wordpress.com
A fair 2/5 🌟 for me.
Read my complete reviews on Www.areebaflaunts.wordpress.com
May 3, 2012
Margaret Powell’s “Climbing the Stairs” is a charming revealing memoir about domestic service and life in general in 1920s England. Her old fashioned turns of phrases and candid opinions make this biography seem like a tea with grandma. While she vividly recalls her various positions, families, boyfriends, family, friends and homes you get a taste of what life actually was like, how people thought and why they did just what they did. History books can only give you the basics while Powell’s firsthand accounts add the spices to complete the dish. She takes us back to a time when money went further, work was tougher then we could imagine, days off rare and every moment precious. Her uncensored comments make this book a real treasure to read.
August 3, 2017
A kitchen maid is at everyone's beck and call and works exceptionally hard with having to deal with angry cooks and starchy butlers. The hours of work are long and tiring and they get very hours to get out of the house where they are employed. The maid is this book is trying to find a way out of this and sometimes the only way out is marriage but finding someone is hard to do but Margaret gets out on her half day off and meets up with a bus conductor but then realizes he is tied down to his sister, brother and mother but someone else comes into the picture - the milkman who delivers to the house where she works so she sees him twice a day. This story describes the hardworking class.
September 1, 2014
The reason I only gave this book two stars was because when I first picked it up I thought that it was a fiction, however a couple of chapters in I realised that it was non-fiction. I did enjoy the story of Margaret Powell as I do love reading stories about people like her in the 1920s. However I did not particularly enjoy her style of writing. I think I would go back and read her first book Below Stairs if I came across it in the library, as in the end I did enjoy reading about the different places that went during her life and her opinion on society.
August 12, 2017
This is a continuation of the memoir of the author, a kitchen maid in 1920s England. She tells some of the in and outs of her life in service and how she came to leave that life to become a wife and mother. The author gives insight to the life of the working classes during that time in England, particularly from the social perspective. She spends less time in this book on her actual service in a great house, but portrays an unblinking and frank view on some of her dating experiences and the challenges of moving on after service.
February 23, 2012
Much of Margaret Powell's life when not working revolved around finding a man to marry. She acknowledges that that was what you did at that time. It was an interesting read and striking to me because it is non-fiction and yet so much a reflection of fiction books dealing with the same area (though I guess the reflection should go the other way). She seems a women full of fun and determination who is able to carry that into her writing.
February 2, 2014
In Below Stairs, Margaret Powell discusses her years as a maid in the 20's in England. In Climbing The Stairs, we find out about her life as a wife, mother, student, breast cancer survivor and her decision to start writing. Just as hilarious, frank and honest as the first book. I enjoyed her outlook on life: keep it simple and keep it real. Yup...that's great advice!
November 18, 2015
really enjoyed this book! it was my first from this author and i can't wait to read her others. i kinda wonder if i should have read the one that came before this first, but i had already gotten this one and said "why not?". so i'll be reading them backwards. she kind of jumps back and forth chronologically but it wasn't hard to follow long and i was quite enjoyable!
September 28, 2014
I'd probably give it 3.5 stars, but there was enough overlap between this book and the first one to make things a bit dull. I did like what she had to say about seeking an education at any age, though.
August 2, 2015
Such a witty lady! I love her down to earth sense of propriety.
November 8, 2015
More than a bit repetitive of "Below Stairs", but there's still a lot of great stories of early 20th century working-class life in Britain.
October 17, 2016
Illuminating. I love every anecdote!
August 12, 2017
Another honest and interesting partial autobiography. Her style of writing is open and honest and unhindered by political correctness.
October 10, 2018
Very witty
September 7, 2021
Not nearly as good as Below Stairs but it still has its entertaining moments. Powell's hard-headedness and the way she speaks reminds me of my mother's family, and her voice is an echo of a long-gone time, an England in which many Tory voters would still like to be living.
But there's no real structure to the book. It's a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences, almost as if someone had edited all of the waffle out of Below Stairs and then decided to publish it anyway. You don't really get all that much about her life as a kitchen maid and cook!
But there's no real structure to the book. It's a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences, almost as if someone had edited all of the waffle out of Below Stairs and then decided to publish it anyway. You don't really get all that much about her life as a kitchen maid and cook!
May 4, 2019
I really loved all three of Powell's books about her life as a servant in the early 1900s in England. This book tells more about her life after service, which is equally interesting. I really like Powell's style of writing as though she is speaking directly to you, one-on-one. And I appreciate her feminism; she calls out double standards and the restrictions on women she lived through. I wish she had written more. Her books are like candy.
July 16, 2021
I enjoyed her first book “Below Stairs” which describes life as a kitchen maid in a big house in the early 20th century. Very Downtown Abbeyish! Unfortunately this book is very different - there is hardly anything about “downstairs” and service, and instead are her strong views about all kinds of issues ranging from pubs and bars to traveling aboard. Huge disappointment!
December 1, 2022
I enjoyed Margaret Powell's first book as it gave details about her hard life as a kitchen maid and a cook. I'm afraid Climbing the Stairs was not nearly as interesting as it was composed of various unrelated incidents of her life in general. I'm afraid these incidents were pasted together and did not make for very scintilating reading.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews