Do They Mean Us? focused on how Britain appeared in foreign news programmes; Sandbrook is more interested in how the country appears to itself, and how this appearance is mashed up and mediated across time, class and location to emerge in its music, literature, …show more content…
This is where Sandbrook is at his best: neither castigatory nor defensive, simply telling a fascinating story. The section “Champagne in Bingley”, which details the journey of the author of Room at the Top from provincial anonymity to lunches with Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest and Anthony Powell is gripping, not least because Braine seems such a shit. Entries in the index give you the flavour: “disgraces himself in Kingsley Amis’s bedroom / robust views on benefits of slavery / robust views on benefits of smoking / robust views on benefits of South African