Polly Toynbee
Author of Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britian
About the Author
Works by Polly Toynbee
Associated Works
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928) — Foreword, some editions — 374 copies, 5 reviews
The Dylan Companion: A Collection of Essential Writing About Bob Dylan (1990) — Contributor, some editions — 96 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Toynbee, Polly
- Legal name
- Toynbee, Mary Louisa
- Birthdate
- 1946-12-27
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Education
- Badminton School
Holland Park School
St Anne's College, Oxford (history) - Relationships
- Toynbee, Philip (father)
Toynbee, Arnold J. (grandfather) - Organizations
- Guardian (columnist)
Humanists UK (vice president)
Members
Reviews
An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals by Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee is one of our finest journalists and political writers. Here she explores life and her roots as a middle class left winger, descended from a host of equally left wing and often very flawed and guilt-ridden family members. The final fifth of the book offers us her social conscientious explorations of class and a summary of the research she has spent her life doing. An open and honest look at a life with social and political complications. You know you would enjoy her company.
½
Plenty of evidence to substantiate Nye Bevan's characterisation of Tories as lower than vermin.
I enjoyed this book enormously. I am a near contemporary of Polly Toynbee, she's a couple of years older than I am. If you are a baby boomer, this book really is a must read. It reads fluently but she states that the book was 10 years in the writing. No doubt she found better things to do. The subtitle is a hat tip to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals - and what a menagerie she parades before us. She's an oddity - solidly upper middle class but strongly socialist. Her family is very well connected to the upper echelons of British society - particularly the Howard family. Yes, that Howard family - the one that occupied Castle Howard, the dream set for so many TV and film productions about nob life. I share some of her life experiences but my life is not one half as well-lived as hers. I said to my wife, "I want a divorce so I can marry Polly Toynbee" - she tartly replied, "She's happily married." It's one of those books that you are sorry to reach its end.… (more)
Plenty of evidence to substantiate Nye Bevan's characterisation of Tories as lower than vermin.
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Statistics
- Works
- 20
- Also by
- 12
- Members
- 417
- Popularity
- #58,443
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 28
- Languages
- 1