Margaret Powell

Margaret Powell (1907 – April 1984) was an English writer. Her book about her experiences in domestic service, Below Stairs, became a best-seller. She went on to write other books and became a television personality. Below Stairs was an impetus for Upstairs, Downstairs, the basis of Beryl's Lot, and one of the inspirations for Downton Abbey.

Early life and domestic service Ellen Margaret Steer's father, Harry, was seasonally employed as a house painter and her mother, Florence, was a charwoman. Her parents and her grandmother lived in three rooms in Hove, Sussex and she had six siblings. When she was 13 and won a scholarship to grammar school, her parents could not afford to allow her to take it up. She went to work in a laundry until she was 15 and became a maid, first locally and a year later in London. Since she had experience of cooking at home and hated needlework, she became a kitchen maid instead of a slightly more prestigious under-housemaid. When her three sons were in grammar school, she became a maid once more. Eventually, "when I realised I had nothing to talk about with my eldest son, who was preparing to go to university", she took evening school courses in philosophy, history and literature, passed her O-levels at 58, and went on to A-levels, passing the English A-level in 1969.

Writing career and later life She published her memoir, Below Stairs, in 1968. It sold well, 14,000 copies in its first year, and was followed by other autobiographical books beginning the following year. She also wrote some novels.

When she died in April 1984 at 76 after suffering from cancer,

In her birthplace of Hove there is a bus named after her and a blue plaque on her house.

Below Stairs Below Stairs was one of a wave of working-class memoirs beginning in the 1950s, and is about class. but "defiantly individualistic" rather than socialist. which was created by two actresses whose mothers had also been in service. and it was one of the inspirations for the series Downton Abbey, which began in 2011. The book was reissued that year in the UK as Below Stairs: The Bestselling Memoirs of a 1920s Kitchen Maid, and in 2012 was published for the first time in the US as Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey".

Selected publications and reissues Below Stairs. London: Peter Davies, 1968. Below Stairs: the bestselling memoirs of a 1920s kitchen maid. London: Pan Macmillan, 2011. Below Stairs: the classic kitchen maid's memoir that inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey". New York: St Martin's Press, 2012. Climbing the Stairs. London: Peter Davies, 1969. Climbing the Stairs; From Kitchen Maid to Cook: the heartwarming memoir of a life in service. London: Pan, 2011. The Margaret Powell Cookery Book. London: Peter Davies, 1970 Margaret Powell's London Season. London: Peter Davies, 1971 The Treasure Upstairs. London: Peter Davies, 1970