Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired " Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey", by Margaret Powell

Fascinating social history. This wonderful memoir was so well written, and gave an incredible look into what being a kitchenmaid and then a cook in grand houses in between-the-wars England was really like. The humiliations and depravations were many, but Powell's clear writing gives a bigger picture of what it was like to see the end of an era of upstairs/downstairs, and her unusual clarity of thought and original ideas made her as interesting as the greater picture she painted.