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 ]
News tagged with: #harry potter

Other news stories related to: "Polly Toynbee: what my privileged start in life taught me about the British class system"


Chinese buyer of British Steel looks to grow abroad

Purchase of British Steel gives privately owned Chinese steelmaker Jingye chance to grow outside home market dominated by giant state-owned mills Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2019-11-13 11:03:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #privately owned #grow abroad


British Council unveils new International Publishing Fellowship Programme

Staff from Penguin Random House, Kogan Page and Picador are among the professionals taking part in the British Council's International Publishing Fellowship Programme. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-12 13:29:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #international publishing #picador #british council #kogan page


Robyn Crawford exposes the villains in Whitney Houston’s transcendent, tragic life

In “A Song for You,” Crawford worries that the scandal of Houston’s last years can make it easy to forget the greatness of her life. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #tragic life #whitney houston


Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky, a.k.a. the Astro Poets, are here to make sense of modern life

The Twitter personalities discuss their new book and making astrology — as well as poetry — accessible. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-11 19:14:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #modern life #make sense #astro poets


The Bookseller's Working Class Survey wins PPA award

The Bookseller’s Working Class survey, an analysis of class in the publishing business, has been named Content Piece of the Year at the PPA's Independent Publisher Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-11 12:39:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #independent publisher #publishing business


He critiqued a callous health-care system. Then he experienced it firsthand.

Arthur Kleinman describes the challenges of caring for his wife after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-08 13:53:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


How a Harry Potter Illustrator Brings the Magical to Life

The artist Jim Kay, whose latest book is “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” surrounds himself with nature when he draws unnatural creatures like dragons, goblins and trolls. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-11-06 10:00:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #harry potter


Polly Whybrow joins S&S Children's UK

Polly Whybrow is moving to Simon & Schuster Children’s UK from Bloomsbury to take up the role of senior commissioning editor for picture books. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-04 14:03:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bloomsbury #picture books


Unbound launches Irish working class writers anthology

Unbound is launching an anthology of working class writers from across Ireland, featuring original pieces by Roddy Doyle and Lisa McInerney alongside lesser known authors and edited by Paul McVeigh. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-04 02:04:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #anthology #roddy doyle


‘The Beautiful Ones’ isn’t the memoir Prince envisioned, but it’s a moving look at the singer’s life

The book doesn’t offer a clear-eyed view of who the singer really was — he would have hated that. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-30 14:42:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #book doesn


In a healthy democracy, power starts at the top — and the bottom

“The Narrow Corridor” argues that despots rise when government and civil society are weak. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-25 13:15:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #civil society #healthy democracy


H.G. Parry: When We Read Books, We Bring Their Worlds Into Life

While all fiction writers can pull characters from their imaginations and commit them to the page, most readers can’t do what Charley Sutherland can: pull characters from the page and commit them to the real world. Sutherland’s fantastical ability is at the center of H.G. Parry’s debut novel The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-25 08:46:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #debut novel #real world #fiction writers #read books


Penguin Press wins 'intimate history' of post-war British black women

Tom Penn, publishing director at Penguin Press, has acquired Rebel Citizen: A History of Black Women Living, Loving and Resisting by feminist historian Jade Bentil. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-20 15:48:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #publishing director #penguin press


Daniel Mendelsohn’s ‘Ecstasy and Terror’ is a master class in criticism

The New York Review of Books editor tackles everything from Homer to “Game of Thrones.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-17 15:56:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #books editor #york review #master class


John Hodgman on Life as a Very Minor Television Personality

This week on The Maris Review, John Hodgman joins Maris Kreizman to discuss his new book, Medallion Status, now available from Viking. On the genesis of his new book: John: I just came back from the Barnes & Noble store managers’ conference in Orlando. Maris: Wow. What was that like? John:... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-17 08:48:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #maris review


Two British historians among finalists for $75k Cundill History Prize

The $75,000 Cundill History Prize – the largest prize for a work of non-fiction in English, open to publishers worldwide – has announced three "outstanding" women as its finalists for 2019, two of whom are British. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-16 22:25:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #publishers worldwide


Taylor sizes up Chapman's Another Life

Michael Joseph editorial director Jillian Taylor has acquired a story of "love, hope, and the extraordinary capacity of human beings to connect" in a "major deal" from a Curtis Brown Creative novel course graduate. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-16 20:34:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #major deal #human beings


Secret Life of Bees author Monk Kidd finds her perfect Tinder match

Headline imprint Tinder Press is publishing the "life-changing" new novel from The Secret Life of Bees author Sue Monk Kidd. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-16 18:58:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #secret life


Book: Trump mulled order to close parts of VA health system

An upcoming book says President Donald Trump was eager for changes at the Department of Veterans Affairs and toyed with issuing an executive order early in his term to close parts of VA's health system without consulting Congress Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2019-10-16 17:00:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #upcoming book #health system


Column: Julie Andrews relives her glorious, complicated, very real Hollywood life in her new memoir

From behind-the-scenes stories of "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" to the pressures of balancing career and family, Julie Andrews talks candidly about the work involved in her amazing life and career. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-10-15 13:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #mary poppins