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 Great Spirit Trapped in a Tiny Life: On Cherríe Moraga’s “Native Country of the Heart”

CHERRÍE MORAGA HAS been an iconic figure in queer and Latinx literature since the 1981 publication of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, an anthology she edited with the late Gloria Anzaldúa. Bridge was among the first explorations of how people and communities with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-04 17:00:25 UTC ]
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Children's author Polly Ho-Yen joins Titan with adult debut

Titan Books has signed Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award shortlisted author Polly Ho-Yen's debut adult novel.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 16:28:19 UTC ]
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Australia's Booktopia starts publishing imprint

Australian online retailer Booktopia is launching a publishing programme this autumn through imprint Booktopia Editions. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-03 23:47:02 UTC ]
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Grant Wacker Traces Billy Graham’s Life from Farmboy to Evangelical Royalty

In ‘One Soul at a Time,’ religion historian Wacker illuminates the life of Billy Graham, tracing the transition from his early days of hellfire preaching to his inclusive, enticing vision of Christ. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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ANA’s annual conference starts. And Nike confronts a doping scandal: Wednesday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's the link to sign up for our daily newsletter. You can also get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Meditations... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-02 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Legal Action Group to publish children’s book based on life of Lady Hale

Legal Action Group will publish a children's book based on the life of Supreme Court president Lady Hale next month.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-25 19:10:02 UTC ]
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Acer Aspire 5 (A515-43-R19L) review: A budget AMD Ryzen 3 workhorse with middling battery life

If this particular model of the Acer Aspire 5 looks familiar, it's probably because it's been sitting atop Amazon’s laptop bestseller list for months. It’s easy to understand why. With a list price of $350 but usually selling for closer to $310, this AMD Ryzen 3-powered Aspire 5 packs some... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2019-09-25 10:00:00 UTC ]
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‘It’s like starting a net new business’: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit

Revenue diversification, a programmatic talent crunch, and trouble for media's middle class: Here's what people are talking about down at DPS. The post ‘It’s like starting a net new business’: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-09-24 11:58:06 UTC ]
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British historians shortlisted for Cundill History Prize

Four British historians make up half the shortlist for the Cundill History Prize 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-19 20:33:20 UTC ]
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The dying author of ‘The Leopard’ finds new life in ‘Lampedusa’

A man’s death and a masterpiece’s birth are the conjoined subjects of Steven Price’s historical novel. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-19 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Reading Pathways: Where to Start With Colleen Hoover’s Books

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[ Book Riot | 2019-09-19 10:33:38 UTC ]
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Anna James to edit British Library Christmas collection

Children's author Anna James will edit the British Library's Christmas collection.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-16 16:13:19 UTC ]
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History Press lands journey into life of forgotten female gangsters

Indie publisher The History Press has scooped a book on the forgotten female gangsters from the last four centuries found in the archives of Holloway Prison. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-16 07:58:19 UTC ]
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Review: An East L.A. memoir comes to life in 'Always Running' at Casa 0101 Theater

"Always running," the former East Los Angeles gang member Luis says as the first words of his opening monologue, words that also provide the title of the play at Casa 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-09-15 00:53:52 UTC ]
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Between the covers: how the British fell out of love with magazines

Marie Claire’s closure highlights print titles’ struggle for survival in the age of online media Another gap is about to appear on your newsagent’s shelf. This week Marie Claire announced the closure of its UK print edition, adding to an expanding list of high-profile titles from NME to FHM that... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-09-14 06:00:58 UTC ]
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''Testaments' Off to Recordbreaking Start

The most anticipated book of the fall season is shaping up to deliver for its publisher, Penguin Random House, if not for many independent booksellers, who were hoping the title would smash sales records of their own. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Newsroom Donates Pulitzer Monetary Award to Tree of Life Congregation

Staffers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were surprised to learn April 15 that, along with the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-09-06 14:54:26 UTC ]
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How Susan Sontag Influenced Patti Smith’s Reading Life

“She advised me to read more German authors,” says the writer and singer, whose latest memoir is “Year of the Monkey.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-09-05 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Oregon-Auburn nail-biter gets college football season off to a fast start

For the first time since 2014, the Alabama Crimson Tide were not featured in “ESPN’s Saturday Night Football” opener, and while Nick Saban’s charges tend to reward the networks with big ratings numbers, their arch-rivals Auburn more than made up for their absence. According to Nielsen... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-04 17:06:00 UTC ]
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Carmen Giménez Smith will be the next guest for the Life of a Poet

Her new poetry collection, “Be Recorder,” is a bracing examination of America’s promise. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-04 16:16:23 UTC ]
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