Bob Sharpe with Tom Quinn - They Also Serve

Book Review live on bookshow by Maggie Perkovic Nov.1st 2012 With the popularity of Downton Abbey there has been an added interest in the "Downstairs and Upstairs" life, This is a very interesting little book retailing the life of Bob Sharpe who started life as a boot boy/hall boy which meant doing all the jobs that other servants disliked. Cleaning shoes and emptying chamber pots which caused him to slip in an icy yard and fetching slops over himself. The maid in the kitchen then emptied a bucket of water to clean him up!!!!He was twelve at the time, and also helped his dad who worked on the estate as a gamekeeperwith the pheasant chicks and on shooting parties. His work also included carrying wood up and down stairs every day for thirty fires, and sleep on the floor outside his master's bedroom. He worked his way up the chain until in later years he was footman and finally Butler, feared and respected by other servants!!! This is a gentle story, his life with his parents was happy and the marriage he makes later on is totally fulfilled, the girl he fell in love with walking down stairs in London remained his true love till her death later on. Tom Quinn collected the stories of men and women in service and this is a very interesting document of a life long gone never to return. Maggie Perkovic.