BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 28
TA B L E TA L K
ARE THE BRITISH
OBSESSED WITH CLASS?
By Mary Killen
Mary Killen is a Northern Irish
etiquette expert who writes an agony
column for The Spectator. She is also
the author of several books, including
The Diary of Two Nobodies, cowritten with her husband, the artist
Giles Wood.
I
n 1984, when I began my
journalistic career by working on
Tatler magazine, I would have
said yes, the British certainly
were – if not exactly obsessed by
class distinctions and class snobbery
– certainly very interested in these
issues. They were either anxious about
questions of etiquette and status or,
if they were con昀椀dent in their own
grandeur, amused by the etiquette and
status concerns of less secure others.
The early 1980s had seen a resumption
of interest in class. The breaking down
of class barriers in the 1960s had
been so exciting and positive, but the
whole 昀氀ower-power/free love vibe had
given way to a seedier 1970s, with
women being used as human spittoons
by opportunistic men accusing them
of being frigid if they wouldn’t
comply. All this tawdriness (and the
depressingly grungy fashion) was soul
numbing. Then there was the death
in 1980 of John Lennon: the ultimate
irresponsible role model.
marry a prince, and we were all in the
mood for that much more chaste and
romantic story. The advent of Princess
Diana reignited our obsession with
class. The Sloane Ranger Handbook,
published in 1982, with Di on the
cover, topped the best seller list for
two years, selling more than a million
copies.
Suddenly, in 1981, a beautiful,
ladylike virgin hove into view to
The Sloane Ranger Handbook
28
BOISDALELIFE.COM
ISSUE 24
