Paul Johnson
They Know Their Place
The Middle Class: A History
By Lawrence James
Fifty years ago, General Franco used to say to English visitors: ‘What I want to introduce into Spain is what you already have, a large middle class. Here we have too little between the landowners on the one side, and the peasants and workers on the other. Just you wait! We will create a Spanish version of your middle class!’ The half-century has passed. The Spanish middle class has come into being, though whether it has benefited Spain in all the ways Franco expected is doubtful. But what, in the meantime, has happened to the English middle class he so much admired?
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'As readers, we are immersed in Tambu’s self-alienation, at one and the same time reached out to and held at arm’s length.'
@ellekeboehmer weighs up Tsitsi Dangarembga's Booker-shortlisted novel, 'This Mournable Body'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-tambu-did-next
'Trump has done China another favour by manifestly not caring a jot about human rights issues. Win-win, as they often say in Beijing, which is why the Chinese leadership wants this biddable figure to defeat Biden.'
@BurlM11 https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-view-from-beijing
'We are blessed at the moment with an abundance of farmers who have powerful stories to tell.'
@herdyshepherd1's 'English Pastoral' is 'lyrical and passionate', says @CharliePyeSmith.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/peak-soil