Welcome to Litsy!

Downton Abbey is one of my all time favorite series, and this book was the inspiration. Quick easy read, and I did see some character traits that were familiar. Who is your favorite character? Mine is Carson. He had a hard exterior, but you knew he had a warm heart. 3/5🥄s

I‘m on track with my alphabet challenge to read books from my shelves 🎯

When your ex is described in a book.

I‘m loving this memoir (which inspired both Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs). The author‘s tone is so cheeky and witty! 😆

FEATURING: BELOW THE STAIRS by Margaret Powell

What a delightful book even though the subject of being a kitchen maid in a wealthy household was far from delightful.

FULL REVIEW: https://tinyurl.com/y3n4t46b

I am a huge fan of Downton Abbey, so this book captured my attention from page one. 👍

Between a pick and a so so. Fast and relatively engaging, but the author has a definite disdainful attitude that comes through. I was hoping for more Downton Abbey feel and less complaining. Still not bad. 3/5. This will also likely be the last or second to last #bfc book completion for round one, but I‘m still over my goal!

Curled up with this and jasmine tea trying to fight back the killer headache I have before I have to leave for lunch with a friend. Hoping to finish this for #BFC today. Got an unexpected workout in yesterday while helping my dad vaccinate cows. I didn‘t think it was a workout but I‘m sore all over this morning so I‘m counting it 😂

Such a quick read! It was nice to get to know more about a life of a house servant. This gave me a more realistic view to the life of Downton Abbey. I gave it a so-so because I would have liked this to be written more like the books Call the midwife where the main character tells the life stories and events of other people as well. It would have given the reader more broader view in the life of an servant. Still interesting though! 😊

I think she visited the real life Downton Abbey at some point during her working life. Reading this book it's nice to know that some of those places where "They" treated their servants with kindness and respect existed! ?

Happy to know that if this book is as good as it sounds like there are more where this came from. 😁

Next up "B" ?

#LitsyAtoZ

An #easyread for the playgym. Just the right amount of entertainment. Not enough to be sucked in while keeping an 👂 out for the li‘l one. #DowntonAbbey

Loved it.
I don‘t know how, after being such a fan of Downton Abbey, I am just reading this. But I am very glad I did.

My summer holiday reading arrived. 😊

This prompt was to be on 2/5 - sorry it is late.

BookRiotBookstagramChallenge

#Riotgrams

TODAY'S PROMPT: ROYALTY

I totally enjoyed this book. It is as "royal" as I could find. ?

The author had a sense of humor that made the book fast paced, funny, and interesting.

https://silversolara.blogspot.com/2012/12/below-stairs-by-margaret-powell.html

Interesting memoir. The narrator is great as well.

While I may have embraced the book more had it not been ghost written, it is still worth the time to read for anyone interested in domestic service. Powell worked first as a kitchen maid then bluffed her way into full cook at a different residence. I'm just not convinced she was a model employee but this is her own singular story to tell.

In this particular morning, to my horror, instead of seeing a very flat, nude, white body lying there, there was a huge, black, hairy one, standing up in the bath...Well, it was the first time I'd ever seen a full-scale appendage in my life. And after having had a look at it I could see why Adam rushed to get a fig leaf! I would have too if I'd discovered an object like that! The shock! It took me about a week to get over this thing.

One job I particularly hated was when it was the gardener/chauffeur's day off, and I had to take out the horrible little dog of Mrs. Clydesdale. It was a pug dog and it was so fat and over fed that it was almost square. It was called Elaine, but I couldn't imagine any Lancelot taking a fancy to that Elaine #pug

One job I particularly hated was when it was the gardener/chauffeur's day off, and I had to take out the horrible little dog of Mrs. Clydesdale. It was a pug dog and it was so fat and over fed that it was almost square. It was called Elaine, but I couldn't imagine any Lancelot taking a fancy to that Elaine #pug

"The tally-man was a door-to-door salesman."

"Of course, when it came to closing time there was nearly always a free fight on the pavement. They just fought with their fists and shouted obscenities. There was no knocking them down and kicking them in the balls or using knives and bottles like you get now."

"Another diversion which may seem a commonplace now was the cinema but, of course, it bore no comparison with films today. The places by present standards were sleazy."

So, Sunday afternoon, after a mighty big dinner (and everybody tried to have a big dinner on Sunday) was the time spent lying on the bed, making love and having a good old doze. Because, as my Mum said later, if you make love, you might as well do it in comfort. So that's why Sunday School was so popular then.

Not that the Church played much part in my mother's & father's lives.I don't think they had much time for it or, perhaps it's truer to say, they had time but no inclination.Some of us weren't even christened.I wasn't, & never have been.But we all had to go to Sunday School, not b/c my parents were religious, but b/c it kept us out of the way.Sunday afternoons were devoted to lovemaking because there was not much privacy in working-class families.

I remember saying to my mother, 'Why do you have so many children?' 'Is it hard to have children?'And she said, 'Oh, no. It's as easy as falling off a log.' You see that was the only pleasure poor people could afford. It cost nothing - at least at the time when you were actually making the children. The fact that it would cost you something later on, well, the working-class people never looked ahead in those days.