'Fascinating' Spectator
'Entertaining' Sunday Times
'Enthralling' Guardian
'Beautiful, funny and moving' Daily Mail
'Compelling and moving' Observer
'Replete with vivid - often hilarious, often shocking - anecdotes' Financial Times
While for generations Polly Toynbee's ancestors have been committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, they could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the prosperous life of academia or journalism enjoyed by their own forebears. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality?
Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family - which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell, and features ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop - Toynbee explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.
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An Uneasy Inheritance 9781838958374 Paperback
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Herstory - And fab memoire
There's lots to love in this book. Haven't reached the end quite. I'm enjoying the combination of historical detail or a liberal middle-class family with all its usually hidden or unknown aspects, Toynee's commentary and account of her own childhood and working life. It prompted…
There's lots to love in this book. Haven't reached the end quite. I'm enjoying the combination of historical detail or a liberal middle-class family with all its usually hidden or unknown aspects, Toynee's commentary and account of her own childhood and working life. It prompted me to read her debate with Melanie Phillips about their different perspectives on 'the family': https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/55071/family-matters-polly-toynbee-and-melanie-phillips
- Authors:
- Toynbee, Polly
- Year Published:
- 2024
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Publisher:
- Atlantic Books
- Publication Date:
- 06/06/2024
- Format:
- Paperback
- Number of Pages:
- 448
- ISBN:
- 9781838958374
- Illustrations Note:
- Integrated B&W images throughout
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Language:
- English
- SKU:
- 9781838958374