Toynbee, Polly – The Bell Bookshop

The only way is up

Emma — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘The kind of brilliantly written polemic that Toynbee’s many fans have come to know and love…a terrific book’ Stephen Bush, Financial TimesLabour have won their most decisive victory in decades. But what damage has been done to the country and how do Labour fix it?Political change has arrived. But the new Westminster government’s inheritance looks grim. We’re all in it together, the Tories used to claim, but they left behind sharper social divisions and vastly greater inequality with widening gaps in class, wealth and income. Collapsing public services at home, coupled with threats from a scorching earth and war in Europe, have left our country with gaping unfulfilled commitments.The Only Way is Up gives us a ready reckoner on how to repair the damage and set the UK on the path to sustainable growth. Combining the latest data with expert analysis across health, children’s services, the economy, environment, policing and defence, Polly Toynbee and David Walker tell the story of what went wrong during the Tories’ wild ride and what must now be remedied.

An uneasy inheritance

Emma — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘Fascinating’ Spectator’Entertaining’ Sunday Times’Enthralling’ Guardian’Beautiful, funny and moving’ Daily Mail’Compelling and moving’ Observer’Replete with vivid – often hilarious, often shocking – anecdotes’ Financial TimesWhile for generations Polly Toynbee’s ancestors have been committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, they could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the prosperous life of academia or journalism enjoyed by their own forebears. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality?Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family – which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell, and features ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop – Toynbee explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.

An uneasy inheritance

Emma — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000