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The Privileged Classes: Then and Now
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A book of comparative cartoons describing how British society changed in the first half of the twentieth century.
A book of comparative cartoons describing how British society changed in the first half of the twentieth century.
98 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 22, 2015
I don’t know that I should have bought this book (a pleasingly economical 50p) had it not been for my noticing that Peter Fleming had written (from the village of Nettlebed, in Oxfordshire) a two-page Foreword to this book. He keenly observes the sympathy to the new ways of life adopted by the old aristocracy, “In any society power, if taken away from one class, tends to crop up again in the hands of another; and it is perhaps significant that, in the pages which follow, Government officials are for the most part unsympathetically depicted. To most citizens they, poor fellows, seem to be the new tyrants …”. A generalisation which is recognisable today (2013).
Frank Wilson does not limit his cartoons to the ‘Old Aristocracy’ and “The County” (set). He also takes a prescient dig at ‘The Pensioners’ and “The Working Class” From the viewpoint of 2013, this seems remarkably apt, given increased longevity and the ballooning unaffordability of the present welfare state as the mushrooming National Health Service (so lauded in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics) constantly tests the resolve and election chances of the political classes; and Human Rights legislation, in the absence of Human Responsibilities legislation, is (predictably) applied and tested ever more creatively by lawyers and High Court Judges.
Sixty years on, many of the old families and titled aristocracy have successfully adapted to a life of essentially protecting the UK’s heritage and countryside to the benefit of the entire population. Thumbing through “Country Life” (the glossy weekly magazine first published in 1897) the post-2008 raised eyebrow is largely reserved for those articles describing the country houses and gardens of self-made bankers and financiers.
The cartoons in this book are competently drawn, with good characterisation, and are nicely detailed. That they are (obviously) of their age is demonstrated by examples such as a scene in a pub: wooden floorboards, a long, plain, wooden bench by the bar, men (no sight of a woman) drinking out of tankards, trousers either tied with string below the knee, or worn with gaiters …. an England that we romanticise today. The 1952 scene shows a barmaid working under a string of ‘fairy-lights’, and the farmworkers in dungarees and a boiler suit. A newspaper has been replaced by the (large) wooden-cased radio, the bench is now upholstered and buttoned!
This is an amusing book. No doubt about it. But if you’re looking for side-splitting humour you won’t find it here. I see the value of this book of cartoons lying in its social commentary: reminding us all that while very many changes in society have been (and continuing into the future are) hugely beneficial to the many, inevitably some things have, and always will be, regrettably lost by the wayside. That ever-growing list of unwonted loss will be different for different people. Occasionally such losses are reversed. I was pleasantly surprised to recently see that the iconic design VW camper van is now again available brand new; starting at some £25,000!
When we look back, whether to reminisce or recreate, we invariably fail to remember the unpleasant. Perhaps what this book is really saying to me is never forget the laws of unintentional consequences. Man (as in the whole species of mankind) is a selfish beast who believes that he/she is a great deal cleverer than he/she really is. Self-interest coupled with simple economics underpins the decision making that creates the societies that we live in. Higher ideals rarely compete.
How bittersweet it has been to read this book and to think of those career politicians and public service workers who nowadays milk public funds for everything they can salt away are every bit as evil, if not worse, than those landed aristocrats of the 19th and 20th centuries who exploited their inferiors. At present, political democracy seems to simply be the least-bad option; rather than what it ought to be: clearly demonstrably the best character forming system for growing public-centred, cost-effective, service.
Frank Wilson does not limit his cartoons to the ‘Old Aristocracy’ and “The County” (set). He also takes a prescient dig at ‘The Pensioners’ and “The Working Class” From the viewpoint of 2013, this seems remarkably apt, given increased longevity and the ballooning unaffordability of the present welfare state as the mushrooming National Health Service (so lauded in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics) constantly tests the resolve and election chances of the political classes; and Human Rights legislation, in the absence of Human Responsibilities legislation, is (predictably) applied and tested ever more creatively by lawyers and High Court Judges.
Sixty years on, many of the old families and titled aristocracy have successfully adapted to a life of essentially protecting the UK’s heritage and countryside to the benefit of the entire population. Thumbing through “Country Life” (the glossy weekly magazine first published in 1897) the post-2008 raised eyebrow is largely reserved for those articles describing the country houses and gardens of self-made bankers and financiers.
The cartoons in this book are competently drawn, with good characterisation, and are nicely detailed. That they are (obviously) of their age is demonstrated by examples such as a scene in a pub: wooden floorboards, a long, plain, wooden bench by the bar, men (no sight of a woman) drinking out of tankards, trousers either tied with string below the knee, or worn with gaiters …. an England that we romanticise today. The 1952 scene shows a barmaid working under a string of ‘fairy-lights’, and the farmworkers in dungarees and a boiler suit. A newspaper has been replaced by the (large) wooden-cased radio, the bench is now upholstered and buttoned!
This is an amusing book. No doubt about it. But if you’re looking for side-splitting humour you won’t find it here. I see the value of this book of cartoons lying in its social commentary: reminding us all that while very many changes in society have been (and continuing into the future are) hugely beneficial to the many, inevitably some things have, and always will be, regrettably lost by the wayside. That ever-growing list of unwonted loss will be different for different people. Occasionally such losses are reversed. I was pleasantly surprised to recently see that the iconic design VW camper van is now again available brand new; starting at some £25,000!
When we look back, whether to reminisce or recreate, we invariably fail to remember the unpleasant. Perhaps what this book is really saying to me is never forget the laws of unintentional consequences. Man (as in the whole species of mankind) is a selfish beast who believes that he/she is a great deal cleverer than he/she really is. Self-interest coupled with simple economics underpins the decision making that creates the societies that we live in. Higher ideals rarely compete.
How bittersweet it has been to read this book and to think of those career politicians and public service workers who nowadays milk public funds for everything they can salt away are every bit as evil, if not worse, than those landed aristocrats of the 19th and 20th centuries who exploited their inferiors. At present, political democracy seems to simply be the least-bad option; rather than what it ought to be: clearly demonstrably the best character forming system for growing public-centred, cost-effective, service.
December 21, 2025
Cartoons of postwar England in the vein of a Fougasse or Bateman. If you like old Punch cartoons, you'll enjoy this, even if of course it contains language and attitudes of the time. Also worth a read if you're interested in seeing how the upper middle class saw its past and present - as a contrast between arrogant, fortunately wealthy and solidly self-confident empire-builders and their impoverished make-the-best-of-it heirs, living in rundown stately homes and having to drive themselves and stoke their own boilers instead of having an army of servants to do it for them. Some mildly amusing moments, but on the whole I can't be sad that both pre- and post-war England as evoked here are long in the past.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews