The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class - Softcover

Collins, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862076006 ISBN 13: 9781862076006

Publisher: Granta UK, 2004

Synopsis

Once they were portrayed as the salt of the earth. Nowadays, they expose their lives in TV documentaries, they love Gucci and hate the Euro—the broadsheets cast them as xenophobes and exhibitionists and mock their tastes and attitudes. Who are the white working class and what have they done to deserve this portrayal? In this controversial book, South East-London born Michael Collins defends the white working class against such slurs and caricatures. He argues that their culture is intimately linked to a landscape and a concept of home—in his case, Southwark, where his family lived for generations. As Collins delves into his family’s history, he discovers that missionaries from other classes have always descended to study, influence, patronise and politicise them, long before the contemporary intelligentsia began to demonize them. The Likes of Us is a fascinating and wholly original examination of London's white working class.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Collins has worked as a journalist, scriptwriter and producer, his television credits including Peter York's Eighties for the BBC, and The National Alf, a look at comedy, culture and the working class as exemplified by the character of Alf Garnett. Since 1998, he has worked as a freelance journalist for The Sunday Telegraph, the Observer, the Guardian and the Independent. He lives in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta UK
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1862076006
• ISBN 13: 9781862076006
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240