{"product_id":"9781444735901","title":"The Cook's Tale: Life Below Stairs as it Really Was","description":"Nancy Jackman was born in 1907 in a remote Norfolk village. Her father was a ploughman, her mother a former servant who struggled to make ends meet in a cottage so small that access to the single upstairs room was via a ladder.   The pace of life in that long-vanished world was dictated by the slow, heavy tread of the farm horse and though Nancy's earliest memories were of a green, sunny countryside still unspoiled by the motorcar, she also knew at first hand the harshness of a world where the elderly were forced to break stones on the roads and where school children were regularly beaten.  Nancy left school at the age of twelve to work for a local farmer who forced her to stand in the rain when she made a mistake, physically abused her and eventually tried to rape her.   Nancy continued to work as a cook until the 1950s, sustained by her determination to escape and find a life of her own.","brand":"Hodder \u0026 Stoughton, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47164034449648,"sku":"9781444735901","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781444735901_p0.jpg?v=1763817490","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781444735901","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}