One Pair of Hands: From Upstairs to Downstairs, in this charming 1930s memoir

About Monica Dickens

Monica Dickens MBE was born in 1915 and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Expelled from St Paul's Girls' School she was then sent to a finishing school in France before returning home to life as a debutante: 'The deb scene and the dances were absolute agony. I would look at the waiters and the maids at balls and know for certain that they were having a better time than I was. So I wanted to belong with them down there where there was a bit of life.' And indeed she then spent two years as a cook and general servant. She later wrote about her experiences in her first book One Pair of Hands (1939) which made her a bestseller at the age of twenty-two and immediately established her reputation as a writer. In her career she wrote over fifty books including the Follyfoot novels and for twenty years wrote a much-loved column for Woman's Own. She was also involved with the NSPCC the RSPCA and the Samaritans. She died in 1992 and is survived by two daughters.