Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide

New
Paperback
2017
$12.23

'Pithy and provoking, spiced with the personal' Hilary Mantel Lynsey Hanley grew up part of the 'respectable working class'. At university, she discovered that social mobility is not all it seems. This book is about what it means to cross class divides, what we leave behind in order to get on, and how class affects all of us today. 'There is fury contained within the pages and between the lines of Respectable ...intelligent and important' Colin Grant, Guardian 'Honest, brave and moving' Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level 'Lynsey Hanley is such a crucial voice. When she writes about class, she is writing about lived experience' Owen Jones, New Statesman 'Hanley vividly describes the risky, lonely journey she undertook from one class to another ...She is tremendous at detailing her personal transition' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

Synopsis

'Pithy and provoking, spiced with the personal' Hilary Mantel Lynsey Hanley grew up part of the 'respectable working class'. At university, she discovered that social mobility is not all it seems. This book is about what it means to cross class divides, what we leave behind in order to get on, and how class affects all of us today. 'There is fury contained within the pages and between the lines of Respectable ...intelligent and important' Colin Grant, Guardian 'Honest, brave and moving' Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level 'Lynsey Hanley is such a crucial voice. When she writes about class, she is writing about lived experience' Owen Jones, New Statesman 'Hanley vividly describes the "risky, lonely journey" she undertook from one class to another ...She is tremendous at detailing her personal transition' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 23 Feb 2017
ISBN 10: 0141040610
ISBN 13: 9780141040615
Book Overview: From the author of Estates- An Intimate History, a powerful, highly personal take on social mobility in Britain.

Media Reviews

Ambitious, impressive... There is fury contained within the pages and between the lines of Respectable... an intelligent and important book that deserves to be widely read -- Colin Grant * Guardian *
Hanley vividly describes the risky, lonely journey she undertook from one class to another... She is tremendous at detailing her personal transition -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
Why is class still so central to the experience of living in Britain? It is an urgent question, evaded through a kind of collective shame, but Lynsey Hanley approaches it with wit and passion. Respectable is pithy and provoking, spiced with the personal but solidly grounded in a lifetime's experience of analysing the world around her. It is one of those valuable books that enables the reader to re-think her past and re-experience her own life. -- Hilary Mantel
Honest, brave and moving, Respectable opens up the emotional experience of navigating across class boundaries in an unequal world. -- Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level

Author Bio

Lynsey Hanley was born in Birmingham and lives in Liverpool. She is the author of Estates: An Intimate History, and she is a regular contributor to the Guardian and the New Statesman.