- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
The Lady's Maid
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
A fascinating look at the life of a lady's maid, and her spirited employer, in the first half of the twentieth century
Product Description
'I was able to get on well with everyone below stairs and above, or so I thought until I began working for Lady Astor...'
In 1929, Yorkshire lass Rosina Harrison became personal maid to Lady Astor: the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat and wife of one of England's wealthiest lords.
Lady Astor was brilliant yet tempestuous, but outspoken Rose gave as good as she got. For 35 years the battle of wills and wits raged between the two women, until an unlikely friendship began to emerge.
The Lady's Maid is a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' but also the endless work 'downstairs', but it is Rose's unique relationship with Lady Astor that makes this book a truly enticing read.
Please note, The Lady's Maid is the new title for the book originally published as Rose.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although a new book to me this is not a new book as such. First published in the mid-seventies as Rose: My life in Service, this is a book about Rosina `Rose' Harrison who from her humble beginnings in Yorkshire, through to her move into domestic service and her position as a Ladies Maid to Nancy Astor.
Astor was the first female Member of Parliament and was rather well known in society and the company they kept, George Bernard Shaw, the influence of Christian Science as a religion and the houses they own for example Cliveden and the parties held. But this is a book not about Nancy Astor this is about Rose her ladies maid for nearly 35 years.
Rose could have told us many scandals and secrets of her time, but she readily admits that she has no desire to feed the nosiness of the reader. What she does is tell us the relationship between servants and their employers. The structure of a household in servant terms and how each person played a role, in the efficiency of running big houses as well as their masters and mistresses. There are observations of butlers, gardeners, cooks et al throughout the book. This gives the reader a bigger picture of the servant life and the things they see, they do and have to put up with.
What is important to remember that this book covers a fairly long time period of around 60 years, we have Roses childhood which I think sets the scene for later - it shows Rose's strength, determination and forthright Yorkshire manner which made her work for so long with Lady Astor. I am sure better women would have given up a long time before!
The relationship of servant and master changed during the war years and the movement of the workforce around the country as well as the world. This is tackled during the book as Rose although called to do `war work' is allowed to stay as Lady Astor's maid as Astor was doing so much for the people of Plymouth (her constituency) and suffered at the hands of the German bombs more than once.
Rose paints a picture of hard work, which she seemed to thrive on as well as her passion to travel which was fulfilled even if it meant twice as much work for her in packing, unpacking and moving on again. Trips to America were common, as Astor was an American but plenty of travel through Europe as well as into Africa, to visit the many friends and acquaintances of the Astor family.
This book does do some name dropping but merely in reference to what happened between Rose and her ladyship. Churchill, Bernard Shaw, T.E. Lawrence and of course John Profumo. Rose has not fulfilled our desire to know what happened at Cliveden especially with the last name I mention. Rose is forthright in her approach to her writing, this book is about her and not about what did or did not happen in one of the defining moments of political history in the mid sixties. This is a book ultimately about the relationship between servant and mistress. In this book being republished it has fed into the nation's apparent current love for all things "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" and if you like programmes about such things as I do then you will love this book, even more so.
Astor was the first female Member of Parliament and was rather well known in society and the company they kept, George Bernard Shaw, the influence of Christian Science as a religion and the houses they own for example Cliveden and the parties held. But this is a book not about Nancy Astor this is about Rose her ladies maid for nearly 35 years.
Rose could have told us many scandals and secrets of her time, but she readily admits that she has no desire to feed the nosiness of the reader. What she does is tell us the relationship between servants and their employers. The structure of a household in servant terms and how each person played a role, in the efficiency of running big houses as well as their masters and mistresses. There are observations of butlers, gardeners, cooks et al throughout the book. This gives the reader a bigger picture of the servant life and the things they see, they do and have to put up with.
What is important to remember that this book covers a fairly long time period of around 60 years, we have Roses childhood which I think sets the scene for later - it shows Rose's strength, determination and forthright Yorkshire manner which made her work for so long with Lady Astor. I am sure better women would have given up a long time before!
The relationship of servant and master changed during the war years and the movement of the workforce around the country as well as the world. This is tackled during the book as Rose although called to do `war work' is allowed to stay as Lady Astor's maid as Astor was doing so much for the people of Plymouth (her constituency) and suffered at the hands of the German bombs more than once.
Rose paints a picture of hard work, which she seemed to thrive on as well as her passion to travel which was fulfilled even if it meant twice as much work for her in packing, unpacking and moving on again. Trips to America were common, as Astor was an American but plenty of travel through Europe as well as into Africa, to visit the many friends and acquaintances of the Astor family.
This book does do some name dropping but merely in reference to what happened between Rose and her ladyship. Churchill, Bernard Shaw, T.E. Lawrence and of course John Profumo. Rose has not fulfilled our desire to know what happened at Cliveden especially with the last name I mention. Rose is forthright in her approach to her writing, this book is about her and not about what did or did not happen in one of the defining moments of political history in the mid sixties. This is a book ultimately about the relationship between servant and mistress. In this book being republished it has fed into the nation's apparent current love for all things "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" and if you like programmes about such things as I do then you will love this book, even more so.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was first published in 1975 under the title 'Rose: My Life In Service'. Rosina 'Rose' Harrison here tells us a bit about her childhood, how she was educated, and her ambition to become a lady's maid. Telling of things that happened in employment from the beginning of her years in domestic service the majority of this book is in fact taken up with her position with Lady Astor. Lady Astor was the first female MP, and she was a mass of contradictions, this in itself meant that she was always getting through lady's maids, as they couldn't put up with her. Rose on the other hand was just as forceful as Lady Astor, and thus two strong personalities came into conflict, but if anything this seemed to strengthen their relationship.
Rose's writing style is simple and forthright and you are easily drawn into her story, indeed I found it very hard to put this down as it was so absorbing and fascinating to read. Full of incident, and people you will have heard about, as well as those you wouldn't, such as Rose and Mr Lee, the perfect butler, there is a lot to take in here. Rose gives us a whole host of anecdotes, as well as some from others whom she worked with. I think that peope tend to forget these days that it was ultimately the household staff who ran the buildings, the owners, usually just getting in the way. In some ways this is quite light-hearted, but it does get to the nitty-gritty, in such things as the bombings in the Second World War, and deaths.
All in all, if you are looking to read something about domestic service, and want something that will hold you enthralled, without being too taxing, then this is ideal. Instead of watching period dramas, read this instead, and find out about what really went on, and the problems and laughs that people had. Just a quick note about the cover picture, the house in the background is Cliveden itself, where a lot of this book takes place.
Rose's writing style is simple and forthright and you are easily drawn into her story, indeed I found it very hard to put this down as it was so absorbing and fascinating to read. Full of incident, and people you will have heard about, as well as those you wouldn't, such as Rose and Mr Lee, the perfect butler, there is a lot to take in here. Rose gives us a whole host of anecdotes, as well as some from others whom she worked with. I think that peope tend to forget these days that it was ultimately the household staff who ran the buildings, the owners, usually just getting in the way. In some ways this is quite light-hearted, but it does get to the nitty-gritty, in such things as the bombings in the Second World War, and deaths.
All in all, if you are looking to read something about domestic service, and want something that will hold you enthralled, without being too taxing, then this is ideal. Instead of watching period dramas, read this instead, and find out about what really went on, and the problems and laughs that people had. Just a quick note about the cover picture, the house in the background is Cliveden itself, where a lot of this book takes place.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
this book is well written and gives a wonderful insight into the life of a lady's maid to the very wealthy between about 1920 and 1964. Rosina Harrison comes across as a lovely person, not given to indiscretions but well able to stand up to the domineering Nancy Astor. I was pleased there wasn't much about the Astors' politics for that wouldn't have interested me much.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Lady's Maid
A fascinating insight into a bygone era and the reltionship between the lady and her maid, simply but beautifully told. A delightful read and an honest account.
Published 2 months ago by elise
Good book
The Lady's Maid is a fascinating look at the life of a maid who worked downstairs of a big house. The heroine is a young Yorkshire girl and this is a really good account of the way... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dee McDonnell
Fascinating
I loved this! I couldn't put it down, it's a pleasure to read a 'real life' version of the life of people in service. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Boris
Great book
I have been interested in the Upstairs/Downstairs life of servants since the age of 15 (now 62). This book is a great read, I could hardly put it down. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Morgan's Mum
THE LADYS MAID
THIS BOOK IS VERY INTERESTING A GOOD READ CAME IN GOOD TIME AND IS GOOD CLEAN CONDISION VERY PLEASED WITH THIS BOOK AND WILL BE LOOKING OUT FOR MORE BOOKS
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. Joan Harrop
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
