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  • Published: 14 July 2000
  • ISBN: 9780552998222
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.99

A Class Apart




A hilarious expose of the English class system - which is still very much alive and kicking, whatever the government may say.

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.

  • Published: 14 July 2000
  • ISBN: 9780552998222
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $26.99

About the author

Diana Appleyard

Diana Appleyard is a writer, broadcaster and freelance journalist for a number of national newspapers and magazines. She worked for the BBC as an Education Correspondent, before deciding to give up her full-time job to work from home, a decision which formed the basis for her first novel, Homing Instinct. She lives with her husband Ross and their two young daughters in an Oxfordshire farmhouse. Her other novels A Class Apart, Out of Love, Every Good Woman Deserves a Lover and Playing with Fire are also published by Black Swan.

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Praise for A Class Apart

A light and entertaining read with likeable characters

Woman's Own