The Downstairs Cookbook offers genuine 1920s recipes from bestselling author Margaret Powell, the house maid and cook who shared tales from her years of service in Below Stairs and inspired the original Upstairs Downstairs TV series. Now in this cookery book she offers a collection of sweet and savoury courses that the servants regularly prepared for their masters upstairs, accompanied throughout by her heartwarming anecdotes from life in service.

The recipes include retro classics such as kedgeree, jugged hare and angels on horseback as well as more adventurous offerings such as lobster soufflé and veal quenelles. With separate chapters on pastry and preserves, this is Margaret Powell’s complete cook’s manual for a 1920s household.