Polly Toynbee: what my privileged start in life taught me about the British class system

It wasn’t just luck that steered the Guardian columnist to Oxford and into a media career ... She reflects on the subtle mechanics of class (and an early encounter with a naked future PM)Children know. They breathe it in early, for there’s no unknowing the difference between nannies, cleaners, below-stairs people and the family upstairs. Children are the go-betweens, one foot in each world, and yet they know very well from the earliest age where they belong, where their destiny lies or, to put it crudely, who pays whom. Tiny hands are steeped young in the essence of class and caste. In nursery school, in reception they see the Harry Potter sorting hat at work. They know. And all through school those fine gradations grow clearer, more precise, more consciously knowing, more shaming, more frightening. Good liberal parents teach their children to check their privilege – useful modern phrase – but it swells up like a bubo on the nose. There’s no hiding it.I can summon up the childhood shame at class embarrassments. Aged seven like me, Maureen, with her hair pinned sideways in a pink slide, lived in a pebble-dashed council house by the water tower. They were at the other end of Lindsey, more hamlet than village, half a mile down the road from my father’s pink thatched cottage set in the flat prairie lands of Suffolk, where I spent half my time, the other half in London, shuttling between divorced parents. I envied Maureen for what looked to me like a cheerful large family... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-20 12:00:56 UTC ]
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Emma Gannon | 'I really want to us to fight back against the algorithm of life'

Five years ago, when in her late twenties, Emma Gannon released her first book: Ctrl Alt Delete: How I Grew Up Online. It’s a funny and thoughtful memoir which charts her formative experiences on the internet as a Millennial woman born in the same year as the World Wide Web. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-03 14:05:09 UTC ]
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He fought in the Marines and MMA matches. A novel about his mother was the fight of his life

Atticus Lish was acclaimed for his first novel 'Preparation for the Next Life.' His second, 'The War for Gloria,' is more raw, painful and personal. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-02 13:00:39 UTC ]
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Arts centre offers residency as part of Working Class Writers Festival

Bristol arts hub and charity Knowle West Media Centre is seeking a writer who identifies as working-class to participate in a mini residency as part of the centre's Working Class Writers Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-01 12:58:06 UTC ]
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10 Bibliomemoirs About the Life-Altering Power of Reading

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[ Book Riot | 2021-08-30 10:37:00 UTC ]
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At a Chicago high school, helping refugee students navigate American life

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[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In William Maxwell’s Fiction, a Vivid, Varied Tableau of Midwestern Life

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[ The New York Times | 2021-08-23 17:02:39 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ahead of her time. ‘Two-Way Mirror’ does justice to her riveting life.

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[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Book Riot | 2021-08-12 10:37:00 UTC ]
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Icon bags Eloise's 'refreshing' debut on life with OCD and autism

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 20:18:23 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2021-08-11 17:26:22 UTC ]
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David Archuleta’s Kids’ Book Reflects His Life

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-08-06 15:55:42 UTC ]
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[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-06 14:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-27 19:32:32 UTC ]
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‘A terrifying precedent’: author describes struggle to publish British army history

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[ The Guardian | 2021-07-23 13:00:54 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2021-07-19 09:14:25 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-07-13 15:41:49 UTC ]
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[ Digiday | 2021-07-08 04:01:00 UTC ]
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Books in the Media: Kellaway goes straight to top of the class

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-05 06:34:13 UTC ]
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