Lynsey Hanley

This is a book about class in the UK. It is about 'the way it [class] builds those walls in the head.' It is a national and a personal journey through class. Lynsey Hanley grew up certain she was working-class but also certain she didn't fit in. She has now successfully made the jump across the class divide and is now certainly middle-class. She writes about the working class life that she knew on a large council estate in the West Midlands and this gives the book a strength as well as limitations. There are many other working class stories that are different and varied versions of the respectability these groups seek. Lynsey Hanley dismisses interventions such as Sure Start as a middle-class judgement that people in poverty make poor parents. She seems to argue that a more level play-ground economically would be a good start for society, while arguing that for working-class young people there is also safety in conforming and not trying to have aspirations, be too clever and try and jump the class divide. There is plenty of interesting detail here but I found it a little rambling in its arrangement.… (meer)