At a kitchen maid, it's not just being at the beck and call of the people upstairs that's difficult, but having to deal with tempermental cooks, starchy butlers and chauffeurs with a roving eye. Marriage is the only escape, but with just one evening off a week, Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor(who brings his mother on dates) and Mr Hailsham the elderly fishmonger(who looks increasingly like his wares), her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams. Then she meets Albert the milkman. Could he be the man she's been waiting for? And, having spent their whole lives serving others, can they start to figure out what they want for themselves?
Told with her trademark wit and warmth, Climbing the Stairs is a unique, sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters and servants began to lose its sway, and of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands.