What do you think?
Rate this book
A class act: The myth of Britain's classless society
. Hamish Hamilton, with dustjacket, bright clean copy, no markings, Professional booksellers since 1981
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Adonis
22 books3 followersAndrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, PC is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2009 to 2010, and as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission from 2015 to 2017.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 11, 2021
A good and interesting tour of the British system written in 1997 so 24 years ago
Interesting to observe what has changed since then . Amongst many things - in 1997 we had 4 sitting black and Asian MPs. In 2019 we had 61. So there has been considerable progress there I thought .
Andrew Adonis picks over the different tastes and mores of the different classes with glee but I did wonder what he was doing it for - and what he would suggest doing differently .
He was good on the Royal family - referring to them as the “ sclerotic Windsors “ pickled in Aspic and although I have always accepted our Royals unquestioningly, it made me pause and wonder why we put up with them all ? No other European country has such pampered and subsidised Royals. The others live in semis and work for a living. Why do we accept this huge family patronage , why does it fascinate us ? His answer 24 years ago - is that it is the cornerstone of our class system and we can’t do without it - and what would replace it ?
I also read Owen Jones more recent 2014 book on the establishment and much of what Adonis writes about the elites that run the uk are echoed here.
Nothing will change in my lifetime and my guess is we will be in similar circumstances in 2121 ; still it is interesting to ponder
Interesting to observe what has changed since then . Amongst many things - in 1997 we had 4 sitting black and Asian MPs. In 2019 we had 61. So there has been considerable progress there I thought .
Andrew Adonis picks over the different tastes and mores of the different classes with glee but I did wonder what he was doing it for - and what he would suggest doing differently .
He was good on the Royal family - referring to them as the “ sclerotic Windsors “ pickled in Aspic and although I have always accepted our Royals unquestioningly, it made me pause and wonder why we put up with them all ? No other European country has such pampered and subsidised Royals. The others live in semis and work for a living. Why do we accept this huge family patronage , why does it fascinate us ? His answer 24 years ago - is that it is the cornerstone of our class system and we can’t do without it - and what would replace it ?
I also read Owen Jones more recent 2014 book on the establishment and much of what Adonis writes about the elites that run the uk are echoed here.
Nothing will change in my lifetime and my guess is we will be in similar circumstances in 2121 ; still it is interesting to ponder
Displaying 1 of 1 review