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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'A Threat to Politics is a Threat to Life': PW talks with Steven Millies

With the November elections drawing near, PW talks with the director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union, who describes himself as a political scientist, a theologian, and a public intellectual about his latest book 'A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Best Chromebook deals for Prime Day 2024: Start saving for school

Amazon’s Prime Day Chromebook deals are ramping up in anticipation of the big event beginning on July 16. We’re busy poring through early Prime Day sales, looking for the best Chromebook deals on both budget and premium machines. Prime Day takes place on July 16 and July 17 this year,... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-07-12 10:10:00 UTC ]
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Start taking digital notes in ebooks with a Kindle Scribe, now 30% off

Scribbling on the pages of a real book is a capital sin, but not when you have a Kindle Scribe. It has all the features of a Kindle except you can also write and draw directly on the pages of your ebooks. And right now the Kindle Scribe is more affordable than ever at $260 for Prime... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-07-10 14:20:14 UTC ]
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Panel Mania: 'Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies' by Stan Mack

'Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995' collects Mack’s irresistible weekly comic strip into a single volume. A five-page excerpt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A British Literary Festival Fit for a Queen

The second annual Queen’s Reading Room Festival at Hampton Court Palace celebrated what Queen Camilla has called the “great adventure” of the written word. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-07-03 09:01:09 UTC ]
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Stephanie Jackson to Lead DK Life, DK Red

Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Top 10 benefits of Amazon Prime: Free shipping is just the start

Amazon Prime built its popularity by offering subscribers faster free shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and exclusive deals (most noticeably during the company’s Prime Day dealfest, coming again July 16 and 17). But Prime membership includes other perks, too: Everything... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-07-01 13:28:52 UTC ]
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Scott And Mark Hoying's Debut Children's Book Celebrates Their Real-Life Love Story

The Pentatonix singer and his husband say "How Lucky Am I?" parallels their own experiences as a married couple, including their dream of starting a family. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2024-06-20 16:24:07 UTC ]
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British Academy Prize: ‘Courting India’ With a Photo Project

The British Academy Book Prize is preparing a specially commissioned photographic exhibition based on its 2023 winner, 'Courting India.' The post British Academy Prize: ‘Courting India’ With a Photo Project appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-06-19 20:24:58 UTC ]
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A Book Club of Two: The Time I Started a James Joyce Reading Group in College

I’d bought my copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses at a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan in 1999, the summer before I left for college, along with a stack of other novels that I was convinced my much-smarter classmates would have already read. How I even decided which novels those were, I am still not... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-14 08:56:12 UTC ]
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Save $110 on a Kindle Scribe and start taking easy digital notes

Looking for a productive way to read and take notes at the same time? Then you probably need this Kindle Scribe that’s currently only $280, way down from its usual price tag of $390. Unlike the other Kindle devices that are mainly for reading, the Kindle Scribe is designed for jotting... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-06-10 14:21:42 UTC ]
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Empire of the Ants will let you explore a photorealistic bug’s life this November

Empire of the Ants, a real-time strategy game with dazzlingly photorealistic insects and other critters, arrives on November 7. Although the game doesn’t sound like it’s exactly a remake, it comes from the same publisher (and draws from the same source material) as the 2000 RTS game of the same... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-06-10 08:00:22 UTC ]
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Picador to Reissue the Works of Roberto Bolaño Starting in September

Beginning this fall, Picador will reissue the majority of Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s catalog in English translations in a "major repackaging program," starting with 'By Night in Chile,' 'The Return,' and 'Antwerp.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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John Kaag on the Bloods, the Little-Known Dynasty that Shaped American Life and Philosophy

There are times when a writer encounters the work of a contemporary at the ideal time. In my case, this writer was John Kaag and the book was his 2018 philosophical memoir Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are. I had been studying philosophy in graduate school, but had left to pursue... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-07 08:55:26 UTC ]
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Getting started with Microsoft 365: Everything you need to know

For many years, Microsoft sold its productivity software Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so on in a bundle called Microsoft Office. In 2013, the company saw where the software industry was heading and began a transition to a subscription-based model. The suite of applications and a growing... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2024-05-30 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Alive She Was Mythic, Dead She Is Larger Than Life

An excerpt from Bright and Tender Dark by Joanna Pearson From LoveandLegacy.com: Karlie Richards (July 13, 1980–January 8, 2000) Margaret Karla “Karlie” Richards of Sycamore Grove, NC, darling daughter, sister, and friend, went to meet her Heavenly Father in the early hours of January 8, 2000,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-20 11:05:00 UTC ]
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British Book Awards: The 2024 Trade and Book Honors

The 2024 British Book Awards had their big night at Grosvenor House in London, celebrating both book and trade award winners. The post British Book Awards: The 2024 Trade and Book Honors appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-05-14 03:51:46 UTC ]
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The Morning After: Those geomagnetic storms are messing with farming tech’s GPS systems

Over the last few days, heightened solar activity (and those heady geomagnetic storms) led to outages in the GPS navigation systems that guide some modern tractors from John Deere and other brands. 404 Media reported farmers have been told to pause using high-tech tractors that use GPS systems... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-05-13 11:15:58 UTC ]
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System of a Down singer Serj Tankian's new book details band's up and downs, and what fuels his activism

Before releasing new memoir "Down With the System" on May 14, Tankian spoke about why he's optimistic about Armenia, and whether we might see another album from System of a Down. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-09 21:29:13 UTC ]
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'Night Watch,' 'A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,' 'King' Among 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Novelist Jayne Anne Phillips, journalist Nathan Thrall, and biographer Jonathan Eig were among the winners of the 108th annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism and in Arts and Letters, announced May 6. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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