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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[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Life of 'radiant' Mo Siewcharran remembered

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Run for Your Life, Peter Rabbit!

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[ Slate | 2017-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Publishers Should Start Thinking About Blockchain

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[ Folio Magazine | 2017-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jessica Townsend | 'Life is really silly and it's really serious'

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Starting pistol sounds on the Back To University season

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The tide is starting to turn against the world’s digital giants | John Naughton

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[ The Guardian | 2017-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Who Will Save Vermont Life?

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[ Folio Magazine | 2017-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature's Bodega Project is the literary counterpoint to the tech start-up

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Betanews | 2017-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wedding Old to New, in Family Life and Faith-Based Publishing

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Australian Authors Start Online Marketplace

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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July Religion Bestsellers: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ Makes a Comeback; James Patterson Tops

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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