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NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins January 8, 2012, at 12 pm ET, and ends January 14, 2012, 11:59 am ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Click here for details and official rules.
It’s finally here! The second season of the delicious British soap opera Downton Abbey is now being aired on American shores (and airwaves and cable and satellite—heck, you know what we mean), and to make your experience even more delightful, we’ll be giving away a special Downton Abbey prize-pack each week to a lucky entrant. The prize includes a copy of The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes and Below Stairs by Margaret Powell, and all you have to do to enter is click here.
And don’t miss this week’s Downton Abbey Season 2, episode 1 recap!
The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes
April 1912. The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear that it seems as if the way it represents will last for another thousand years. It won’t.
Millions of American viewers were enthralled by the world of Downton Abbey, the mesmerizing TV drama of the aristocratic Crawley family—and their servants—on the verge of dramatic change. On the eve of Season 2 of the TV presentation, this gorgeous book—illustrated with sketches and research from the production team, as well as on-set photographs from both seasons—takes us even deeper into that world, with fresh insights into the story and characters as well as the social history.
Below Stairs by Margaret Powell
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants portrayed in Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, Margaret Powell’s classic memoir of her time in service, Below Stairs, is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high. Powell first arrived at the servants’ entrance of one of those great houses in the 1920s. 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 bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids’ curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlormaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress’s nephew, Margaret’s tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation. Margaret Powell’s true story of a life spent in service is a fascinating “downstairs” portrait of the glittering, long-gone worlds behind the closed doors of Downton Abbey and 165 Eaton Place.
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