9781445859330: The Maid's Tale

Synopsis

Born in 1910 Rose Plummer grew up in an East End slum. At the age of fifteen she left the noise and squalor of Hoxton and started work as a live-in maid at a house in the West End. Despite the poverty of her childhood, nothing could have prepared her for the long hours, the backbreaking work and the harshness of this new world; a world that saw servants as almost less than human. This is her story.

'They thought they owned us body and soul - and they did. We weren't allowed to speak to the lady of the house or even look at her. We had to turn to face the wall if we saw her coming along the hall. And the upper servants often treated the lower ones even worse than she did. From six in the morning till eight or nine at night we lit fires, cleaned pots and pans with brick dust and vinegar till our fingers bled and were sacked if we were so much as seen with a boy. And all that for a few miserable shillings a week!'

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Book Description

A revealing memoir of life below stairs

About the Author

Tom Quinn is the editor of the Country Landowner's Magazine. He has written several small books for small independent publishers. He has spent the last twenty years interviewing people who worked in domestic service, getting them to tell him their life stories.

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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781444735864: The Maid's Tale: The remarkable true story of one English maid's life below stairs (True Stories of Life Below Stairs)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1444735861 ISBN 13:  9781444735864
Publisher: Coronet, 2011
Softcover