Download or read book Below Stairs written by Margaret Powell and published by Pan. This book was released on 2011-03-12 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling and colourful memoir that takes the reader inside the forgotten world of domestic service. Arriving at the great houses of 1920s London, fifteen-year-old Margaret's life in service was about to begin... As a kitchen maid - the lowest of the low - she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and even bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids' curlers, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlourmaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress' nephew, Margaret's tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation.

Download or read book The Girl Below Stairs written by Jennie Felton and published by Headline. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Believable characters, a vivid sense of time and place, thoroughly enjoyable' Rosie Goodwin The emotionally gripping third book in the beloved classic series from 'one of the nation's favourite saga author' (Lancashire Post) in the grand tradition of Katie Flynn, Dilly Court and Josephine Cox. Jennie's heartwarming and heartrending sagas are richly praised! 'Jennie Felton knows how to tell a cracking story and keep the reader gripped... if you enjoy reading books in the style of Catherine Cookson then this one is for you' Books With Wine and Chocolate 'Another superbly woven and character-rich story from a saga author who writes from the heart' Peterborough Telegraph 'Packed full of Jennie's signature strong heroines, this book will keep you guessing' MNR Journal Edie Cooper has grown up at Fairley Terrace, surrounded by a loving family. Now she spends her days working as lady's maid to Christina, the adopted daughter of the powerful Fairley family, and her nights dreaming of a life with handsome local lad Charlie Oglethorpe. Although broken-hearted when Charlie leaves to make his fortune in London, Edie finds consolation in her friendship with Christina, who asks for her help in uncovering the mystery of her true parentage. But someone in the grand house will stop at nothing to keep the long-buried secrets hidden. Will Edie be able to protect Christina? And will she find her own path to happiness with Charlie? Don't miss Jennie's the rest Families of Fairley Terrace series, which begins with Maggie's story in All The Dark Secrets and continues with Lucy's story in The Miner's Daughter, Edie's story in The Girl Below Stairs, Carina's story in The Widow's Promise and Laurel's story in The Sister's Secret. Plus look out for Jennie's page-turning standalones - The Stolen Child, A Mother's Sacrifice and The Smuggler's Girl - coming soon!

Download or read book A Countess Below Stairs written by Eva Ibbotson and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the Russian Revolution turns her world upside down, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as a servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family. Anna is overwhelmed by her new duties, and her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her, too. Anna finds it increasingly difficult to keep her secrets from unraveling; and then there's the small matter of Rupert's fiancée.

Download or read book Death Below Stairs written by Jennifer Ashley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Victorian class lines are crossed when cook Kat Holloway is drawn into a murder that reaches all the way to the throne. Highly sought-after young cook Kat Holloway takes a position in a Mayfair mansion and soon finds herself immersed in the odd household of Lord Rankin. Kat is unbothered by the family’s eccentricities as long as they stay away from her kitchen, but trouble finds its way below stairs when her young Irish assistant is murdered. Intent on discovering who killed the helpless kitchen maid, Kat turns to the ever-capable Daniel McAdam, who is certainly much more than the charming delivery man he pretends to be. Along with the assistance of Lord Rankin’s unconventional sister-in-law and a mathematical genius, Kat and Daniel discover that the household murder was the barest tip of a plot rife with danger and treason—one that’s a threat to Queen Victoria herself.

Download or read book Under the Stairs written by Lisa D. Keele and published by Divertir Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two children open a forbidden door under the stairs... A barkeep shuts his doors one night every year for a special party... Do you really know the Muffin Man... A boy's chance to save the world rests in the hands of a dismissive pterodactyl... Big troubles come to a wizard when he loses his hat... A former police officer decides to face the events of his past... A woman's relationship with her husband causes her to face a disturbing truth... A time when the end is really the beginning... The short story collection "Under the Stairs" was an idea born in response to Flash Fiction Month on a popular art and literature website. This collection contains 20 stories of various genres written by authors from around the world. Each story is under 2000 words in length and is sure to keep the reader entertained.

Download or read book Scandal Above Stairs written by Jennifer Ashley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Death Below Stairs. A mystery of stolen antiquities has Kat Holloway setting aside her apron once again for the intrigues of the upper echelons of Victorian London. Priceless artwork has gone missing from the home of a wealthy baronet, and his wife stands to take the blame. When Kat's employer asks for help in clearing her friend's name, Kat trades her kitchen for the homes of Mayfair's wealthiest families. Soon antiques are disappearing not only from the extravagant households of connoisseurs and collectors, but from the illustrious British Museum. As the thefts increase in frequency, Kat calls upon her friend Daniel McAdam, who has already set himself up in a pawnshop on the Strand as a seedy receiver of stolen goods. When a man is murdered in the shop, Kat must use all of her wits to see that the thieves are caught and justice is done.

Download or read book The Girl on the Stairs written by Barry Ernest and published by Barry Ernest. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On November 22, 1963, a young Victoria Elizabeth Adams stood behind a fourth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. She watched as John Kennedy was murdered in the streets below. Then, with a co-worker in tow, she ran down the back stairs of the building in order to get outside and determine what had happened. At that precise moment, her life changed forever. Her actions posed serious problems for the Warren Commission, already grappling with its agenda of naming Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin. If Miss Adams was telling the truth, then she had descended those stairs at the same time Oswald would have been on them as he made his escape from the sixth floor sniper's nest. Yet Miss Adams saw no one. And even though the stairs were old, wooden, and creaky under any weight, she heard no one either. When Miss Adams was called to testify before a Commission attorney, she was quickly discredited, humiliated, and eventually branded a liar. Behind closed doors she pleaded with the government to conduct time tests of her actions if she was felt to have been inaccurate. She begged the government to question her co-workers, particularly the woman who had accompanied her down the stairs, if she was not believed. Instead, she was ignored. And so, knowing the truth of what she had done and now fearing for her life because of it, she went into hiding and became willing to die with that secret knowledge. Intrigued by what little was available about Miss Adams, the author went in search of her. It took him 35 years to eventually find this elusive witness. As his journey progressed, many questions arose about the assassination while others were put to rest. And in the end, the truth of what Miss Adams did was finally discovered. This is an important story, unique in this mess that continues to surround Kennedy's death. It is a story that has been buried for decades. It is an account the government did not want you to hear, and actually fabricated evidence in order to keep you from hearing it. Now, the truth can be told.

Download or read book Beneath the Stairs written by Jennifer Fawcett and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-03-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this spine-tingling, atmospheric “nail-biter of a novel” (Shelf Awareness), a woman returns to her hometown after her childhood friend attempts suicide at an alleged haunted house—the same place where a traumatic incident shattered their lives twenty years ago. Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened fourteen-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for ruining their lives. A “spellbinding horror story, where the terror comes not from ghosts, but from the haunted places we find within ourselves” (Elizabeth Brundage, author of The Vanishing Point), Beneath the Stairs is perfect for fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James, and Chris Bohjalian.

Download or read book Servants Hall written by Margaret Powell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of accounts about life in the servants' halls of England's great houses shares the true story of under-parlourmaid Rose, who after eloping with her employer's only son was swept up in a maelstrom of gossip.

Download or read book The Downstairs Girl written by Stacey Lee and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Reese's Book Club YA Pick and New York Times Bestseller From the critically acclaimed author of Luck of the Titanic, Under a Painted Sky, and Outrun the Moon comes a powerful novel about identity, betrayal, and the meaning of family. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South. "This vividly rendered historic novel will keep readers riveted as witty, observant Jo deals with the dangers of questioning power." --The Washington Post "Holds a mirror to our present issues while giving us a detailed and vibrant picture of life in the past." --The New York Times "A joyful read . . . The Downstairs Girl, for all its serious and timely content, is a jolly good time." --NPR

Download or read book Below written by Nina Crews and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-04-04 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jack has adventures and rescues with his action-figure, Guy.

Download or read book The Girl on the Stairs written by Louise Welsh and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Logan is a stranger to Berlin and she finds the city alive and echoing with the ghosts of its turbulent past. At six months pregnant, she's instructed by her partner Petra to rest and enjoy her new life in Germany. But while Petra is out at work, Jane begins to feel uneasy in their chic apartment. Screams reverberate through the walls, lights flicker in the derelict building that looms over the yard, a shadow passes on the stairs . . . Jane meets a neighbour's daughter, a girl whose life she tries to mend, but her involvement only further isolates her. Alone and haunted, Jane fears the worst . . . but the worst is yet to come. Louise Welsh, the acclaimed author of The Cutting Room, delivers another masterful suspense novel. The Girl on the Stairs is a powerful psychological thriller packed with twists and turns to keep you reading well into the night. Read it, or be left in the dark.

Download or read book Life Below Stairs written by Alison Maloney and published by Michael O'Mara Books. This book was released on 2011-09-30 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking at the lives of servants from the scullery maid to the butler, bestselling author Alison Maloney presents a vibrant account of a way of life from a bygone era.

Download or read book Sometimes I Lie written by Alice Feeney and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2018-03-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ALICE FEENEYS NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Boldly plotted, tightly knotted—a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.” —AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

Download or read book The Girl Before written by JP Delaney and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE GLOBAL BESTSELLER • Soon to be a BBC One and HBO Max limited four-part series, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show; Misbehaviour) and multiple Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo (Selma; Les Misérables) “A pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense” (Lee Child) that spins one woman’s seemingly good fortune, and another woman’s mysterious fate, through a kaleidoscope of duplicity, death, and deception Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life. The request seems odd, even intrusive—and for the two women who answer, the consequences are devastating. EMMA Reeling from a traumatic break-in, Emma wants a new place to live. But none of the apartments she sees are affordable or feel safe. Until One Folgate Street. The house is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. The enigmatic architect who designed the house retains full control: no books, no throw pillows, no photos or clutter or personal effects of any kind. The space is intended to transform its occupant—and it does. JANE After a personal tragedy, Jane needs a fresh start. When she finds One Folgate Street she is instantly drawn to the space—and to its aloof but seductive creator. Moving in, Jane soon learns about the untimely death of the home’s previous tenant, a woman similar to Jane in age and appearance. As Jane tries to untangle truth from lies, she unwittingly follows the same patterns, makes the same choices, crosses paths with the same people, and experiences the same terror, as the girl before. Praise for The Girl Before “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child “The Girl Before generates a fast pace. . . . [J. P.] Delaney intersperses ethics questions on stand-alone pages throughout the book. . . . The single most ingenious touch is that we’re not provided either woman’s answers.”—The New York Times “J. P. Delaney builds the suspense.”—Vanity Fair “Immediate guarantee: You will not be able to put this book down. . . . Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will realize that there’s not only more where that came from, but it’s also more thrilling.”—American Booksellers Association

Download or read book Life Below Stairs written by Pamela Horn and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The real lives of servants in the era of the TV series 'Downton Abbey'.

Download or read book Death in Kew Gardens written by Jennifer Ashley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Scandal Above Stairs Kat Holloway steps out from beneath the stairs and into international intrigue, where murder and stolen treasure lurk among the upper echelons of Victorian London. In return for a random act of kindness, scholar Li Bai Chang presents young cook Kat Holloway with a rare and precious gift—a box of tea. Kat thinks no more of her unusual visitor until two days later when the kitchen erupts with the news that Lady Cynthia's next-door neighbor has been murdered. Known about London as an "Old China Hand," the victim claimed to be an expert in the language and customs of China, acting as intermediary for merchants and government officials. But Sir Jacob's dealings were not what they seemed, and when the authorities accuse Mr. Li of the crime, Kat and Daniel find themselves embroiled in a world of deadly secrets that reach from the gilded homes of Mayfair to the beautiful wonder of Kew Gardens.