Two sisters have escaped an unhappy violent home. Living in London where the rental market is the most expensive in Europe, Claire and Solange needed work that gave them a roof over their heads. They found it and became the personal maids of a wealthy, single, woman in Grosvenor Crescent in Belgravia.
Working six days a week at their mistress’s beck and call, their only sanctuary was a shared, small attic room. Ten years later, the maids loathe their existence and cannot see any way out of their meaningless lives. The rich poor divide in the UK continues to grow. In 2018 fourteen million Britons were living in poverty and there was a huge jump in the numbers of ‘working poor’. An austerity policy in 2016 hit the poor hard. The narrative that went with it shamed those out of work or on minimum wages, as wasters or losers, while the rich were entrepreneurial and industrious. The affects of austerity and shame of poverty can dehumanise people and harm their mental heath. Claire and Solange live in the crux of this rich poor divide |