This is one of the most funny and delightful book I have ever read : Monica Dickens (great-granddaughter of Charles), despite her privileged upbringing and being presented at Court as a debutante, is bored and has little desire to do what is expected from a young upper class girl in the mid 1930s.
And so she decides to try her hand at domestic service :
« When I told my family that I was thinking of taking a cooking job, the roars of laughter were rather discouraging. My real interest was aroused by lessons I had at a wonderful school of French cookery in London. I went there quite unable to boil an egg and came out with Homard Thermidor and crêpes Suzettes at my fingertips ……… but still unable to boil an egg ! »
This book also reflects the upstairs downstairs lives of the British class system. It is light, entertaining and the author writes so fluidly that I read more of her works like « One pair of feet » which relates her hilarious experience as a nurse during the second world war, and « My turn to make the tea« , when she worked as a provincial newspaper reporter.
Monica continued to write until her death on Christmas day 1992, aged 77.
Most of her books (second hand) are on sale on the web.
