A Class Apart

Class? It doesn''t exist any more, so we''re told. We''re not supposed to be conscious of subtle class differences. We no longer look down on people because of their accents, their education or the car they drive. Or do we?

Lucy Beresford knows her middle-class family thinks she''s married beneath her when she gets together with the devastatingly sexy Rob. He''s gorgeous, he''s thoughtful, he''s clever - but he''s undeniably working class. Her parents cannot believe that she would choose him above Max, her so-suitable former boyfriend - who is truly one of us. Gradually the differences between Rob and Lucy - at first so unimportant - begin to loom large, as they argue over how the house should be decorated, how the children should be educated, and whether the evening meal should be called ''dinner'' or ''tea''.

In this funny, contentious and brilliantly observed novel, Diana Appleyard scratches the surface to reveal the petty snobberies which still exist in most of us, and which make Rob and Lucy...A Class Apart.Class? It doesn''t exist any more, so we''re told. We''re not supposed to be conscious of subtle class differences. We no longer look down on people because of their accents, their education or the car they drive. Or do we?Lucy Beresford knows her middle-class family thinks she''s married beneath her when she gets together with the devastatingly sexy Rob. He''s gorgeous, he''s thoughtful, he''s clever - but he''s undeniably working class. Her parents cannot believe that she would choose him above Max, her so-suitable former boyfriend - who is truly one of us. Gradually the differences between Rob and Lucy - at first so unimportant - begin to loom large, as they argue over how the house should be decorated, how the children should be educated, and whether the evening meal should be called ''dinner'' or ''tea''.In this funny, contentious and brilliantly observed novel, Diana Appleyard scratches the surface to reveal the petty snobberies which still exist in most of us, and which make Rob and Lucy...A Class Apart.