Viva Brighton Issue #68 October 2018
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We care<br />
We don’t judge<br />
Friendly Local Solicitors, serving<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> since 1773<br />
Call us<br />
NOW<br />
01273 838 674<br />
No obligation<br />
Specialists in commercial litigation, including:<br />
• Commercial contract • Commercial property disputes<br />
disputes<br />
• Construction disputes<br />
• Intellectual Property • Professional negligence<br />
disputes<br />
• Commercial debt collection<br />
QualitySolicitors<br />
Howlett Clarke<br />
Branches in <strong>Brighton</strong> & Southwick<br />
01273 838 674 info@howlettclarke.co.uk<br />
www.qualitysolicitors.com/howlettclarke<br />
ON THE BUSES #42: MARGARET POWELL (ROUTE 49)<br />
Margaret Powell never got the opportunity to follow her dream of being<br />
a teacher. She was born in 1907, the eldest of seven siblings squeezed,<br />
with her parents and grandmother, into three rooms in Hove. When,<br />
aged 13, she won a grammar school scholarship, her parents couldn’t<br />
afford for her to take it up and soon after she went into domestic service,<br />
where she stayed for the next ten years. Her working day started at<br />
5.30am and finished long after dark. There were stoves to be blackened,<br />
vegetables to be scrubbed and boots to be cleaned. She resented every<br />
minute and made her escape by marrying Albert Powell, a milkman. No<br />
mean feat when having a boyfriend could get you sacked.<br />
Having raised their three sons through grammar school, Margaret took<br />
herself to evening classes, passing her O-levels aged 58. She retold her<br />
stories in searing detail at those evening classes and, spotted by a publisher while talking about her life<br />
in service, was approached to write a book. The wittily scathing Below Stairs was published in 1968. One<br />
of the first working class memoirs, it told in closely observed detail of the injustices of life in service and<br />
the class divide, and inspired the TV show Upstairs, Downstairs. Further volumes about her experience<br />
of domestic service followed and, with her skill as a raconteur, she enjoyed regular appearances on radio<br />
and TV. She died in 1984, leaving an estate of £77,000. Not bad for a girl from below stairs. LL<br />
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)<br />
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