Life Below Stairs: The Real Lives of Servants, the Edwardian Era to 1939

Life Below Stairs: The Real Lives of Servants, the Edwardian Era to 1939

by PamelaHorn (Author)

Synopsis

By the end of the 1920s domestic service remained the largest female occupation in Britain. We view it today as an undesirable job, owing to the class divide it has come to represent, and this is reflected in the portrayals of mistresses and servants in books and on the screen in such dramas as Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey. But what do we really know about how girls felt when taking up these positions in other people's houses, or how they were treated? Pamela Horn uses first-hand accounts and reminiscences, as well as official records and newspaper reports, to extract the truth about the lives and status of men and women in domestic service from 1900 to 1939.

$35.02

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 282
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 15 Sep 2012

ISBN 10: 1445610086
ISBN 13: 9781445610085

Media Reviews
Praise for the hardback edition: 'Pamela Horn marshalls hundreds of first-person accounts by both servants and employers... an excellent book' * THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
Wonderfully thorough... All human life, above and below stairs, is here' * THE TIMES *
Author Bio
Dr Pamela Horn lectured on social history for over twenty years at Oxford Brookes University. Her books include High Society: The English Social Elite 1880-1914, Ladies of the Manor: Wives & Daughters in Country House Society, Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant. She lives in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.