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 Soft Start to 2018

At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books were 2% lower in the week ended Jan. 7, 2018, than in the first week in 2017. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bringing Biblical Women to Life: 'PW' Talks with Mesu Andrews

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kieran: 'white middle class men should talk about diversity'

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[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British Book Awards launch for 2018 with three new categories

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[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British Book Awards Announce New Honors for Illustrators, Authors, Audiobooks

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Muhammad Khan | 'This book says you absolutely can be British and Muslim'

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[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Tories are out of step with modern life – and Toby Young shows it | Ian Birrell

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[ The Guardian | 2018-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Young, working-class and fed up: Iran's deadly protests driven by a new crop of dissenters

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joyce Marlow’s was a life to remember | Letters

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[ The Guardian | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Working class writers band together for collective, and Unbound anthology

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brexit will usher in a dark chapter for new British authors, warns publisher

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[ The Guardian | 2017-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Working-class Brits keep calm and carry on in animated 'Ethel & Ernest'

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Unparalleled' biography of Meghan Markle's life promised by Morton

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Guardian | 2017-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indies Signal Good Start to Holiday Sales

Booksellers were pleased with the start of the official holiday shopping season following strong sales on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weldon 'sick' at lack of working class people in publishing

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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