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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Europa Editions UK signs first British author

Europa Editions UK has acquired its first title by a British writer, a historical fiction novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Terry Eagleton: A Late-Life Return to Religion

Terry Eagleton is a bookseller's nightmare. "They simply don't know where to put me," he says. With good reason: the pre-eminent cultural critic and distinguished professor has written on cultural theory, politics, and history, as well as a memoir and a novel. In recent years, his attention has... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You’d have to be crazy to start a media company, right?

Media startup founders apparently didn't get that memo that now's a pretty bad time to be in the publishing business. So, are they crazy? The post You’d have to be crazy to start a media company, right? appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2014-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You Too Can Start Your Own Translation Publishing House

Will Evans on the of his Dallas-based publishing house, Deep Vellum Press, and his intention to turn American readers into a community of translation lovers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple settles ebooks price-fixing class action lawsuit

The settlement brings an end to one of the biggest and longest-lasting legal cases of the ebook era. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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German publishers start legal action against Google over news snippets

German news publishers are escalating their fight to get a cut of the ad revenue that Google makes when it republishes parts of their news articles.The publishers’ society VG Media has started legal proceedings against Google after the search-engine giant refused to negotiate with the collecting... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2014-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British spies are allowed to intercept Google and Facebook traffic, official says

British spies are authorized to spy on British citizens’ Internet communications transiting through servers outside the U.K., a civil rights group has discovered.Privacy International uncovered the information as part of a lawsuit it filed against the U.K. government over its alleged involvement... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2014-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Working-class fiction has been written out of publishing

Everyone is the poorer for publishers' widespread assumption that nobody wants to read about this part of societyI have spent the last 25 years selling and then publishing books, so I read with interest Melvyn Bragg's recent comments on working-class characters in fiction being stereotyped and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jon Sweeney: A Life in Books and On the Move

Jon Sweeney's religious evolution has been as peripatetic as his writing and publishing careers. From evangelical to Episcopal to Catholic (and married to a rabbi); from bookseller to publisher to author, his love of religions and thirst for learning have kept him on the move. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BookCon Off to a (Mostly) Good Start

The debut of BookCon on the last day of this year’s BookExpo America was a solid one, but there was room for improvement, especially in terms of crowd control. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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MIT's robotic limbs pave the way for real-life Doc Ock (video)

Two groups of MIT scientists are working on robotic limbs, which when worn together can make you look like one famous comic book villain: Doctor Octopus. Unlike prosthetic limbs developed to replace real ones, the teams' (from MIT's d'Arbeloff... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2014-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing and Technology Start-ups at BEA 2014

Two data analytics companies, Next Big Book and Qlovi, won startup prizes at BEA, but several others caught our eye and are worth watching through 2014. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Loud Start for BookCon

On every level – literally and figuratively, BookCon was a sell-out with executives forced to cap attendance at 10,000. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Glass Closet': The double life of a gay chief executive

"I was not a victim," declares John Browne, the former chief executive of BP, in his new book, "The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good Business," published by Harper Business. "We must own up to our choices and I had made some bad ones." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2014-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA 2014: Alan Cumming: A Life Revealed

Watching the charismatic actor, Alan Cumming, on the CBS television show, The Good Wife, or PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery, seeing him in films or on the stage, where he’s currently getting raves on Broadway as the emcee in Cabaret, you’d be looking at the picture of success. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA 2014: Celebrating Life’s Adventures

Life is one adventure after another, and at booth 1313, Abbeville Press is celebrating some of the things that make it so: Italian cuisine, the seven seas, and Jane Austen. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Connors and Waterstones win at British Sports Book Awards

Former tennis player Jimmy Connors, publicists Karen Geary and Rebecca Mundy, and retailer... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jill Herzig Named Editor-in-Chief of Dr. Oz The Good Life

Hearst Corp. president and CEO Steve Swartz and Hearst Magazines president David Carey looked inward in recruiting four-year Redbook editor-in-chief Jill Herzig for the same position at Dr. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2014-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Quiet Start to 2014

In an unusual occurrence, last week five companies with significant trade publishing operations all reported results for the three months ended Mar. 31, 2104. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beckham and Murray on British Sports Book Awards shortlists

David Beckham, Andy Murray and Ronnie O’Sullivan are among the sports stars competing for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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