Rose My Life in Service Author:Rosina Harrison On August 6, 1918, an eighteen-year-old Yorkshire girl named Rose Harrison launched a career which soon catapulted her into lifelong intimacy with one of England's most famous families. She slept in palaces and fabulous titled estates, traveled to nearly a dozen foreign countries (including America, where she received VIP treatment at the Wa... more »ldorf Astoria), cared for a priceless jewelry collection, and cruised the South Atlantic on a private yacht. Her yearly salary: about $300.
Rose was a lady's maid, and this captivating account of her life in service holds a special magic, for one of her "ladies" was a legend. For thirty-five years, she served Nancy, Lady Astor -- first female Member of Parliament, hostess to the aristocracy, and wife of one of England's wealthiest lords. The spirited Lady Astor was a highly demanding employer, and Rose's job was not easy. Six or seven changes of clothes -- from sporting roughwear to ballgowns and ermine capes -- had to be readied every day in perfect order; trips were organized; domestic details were smoothly managed with the assistance of the other servants, under the supervision of the legendary butler Mr. Lee (several kings and queens took pride in their friendship with him); gigantic formal receptions, tempestuous family squabbles, encounters with the great names of Europe, and bombed-out boudoirs (during the London Blitz) all were weathered.
Rosina Harrison lived in a world that we can only dream about today, and her narrative evokes a stunning fairytale vision of liveried footmen, private greenhouses bursting with out-of-season fruit and rare flowers, and weekends spent at a Scottish castle following the hounds (sidesaddle, of course). Yet the story of Rose's extraordinary relationship with her employer is equally fascinating: though Lady Astor was undoubtedly more prominent, she was not always dominant, and this pair of headstrong and talented women shared plenty of tantrums, laughter, and love. Rose: My Life in Service is an irresistible peek-through-the-banisters at a breath-taking lifestyle and the people who lived it, both below and above the stairs.« less