Bingley

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:…

Novels from the Romantic era generally possessed qualities of sentiment and sensibility, a style deemed feminine by many of the movement’s successors. At the time, this was frowned upon, as “writing women [were considered to cross] the borders between the domains of production and reproduction” and “the distinction between the prostitute and the woman writer was so blurred as to be almost non-existent” (Clark 20-21). The underlying thought behind this was that women were “selling” their emotions…

many people could afford the payments of the mortgages. Northern Rock a big mortgage lender in Britain was the first to fall with a £100 billion debt in all; it was taken over by the government and was added to the British national debt. Bradford & Bingley, which was half the size of Northern Rock, and had £40 billion mortgages lent out, was also quick to be nationalised. The 20th largest bank in the world, The Fortis bank was quick to be nationalised partially with the injection of €15 billion…