Class acts

The peculiarities of British snobbery, manners and romance

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Perspective Media
October 11, 2026

THIS WEEK’S DEEP DIVE
Snob value
BY PHILP HENSHER

Snobbery is one of Britain's most enduring social habits, even if few of us would admit to practising it. From the drawing rooms of Victorian England to today's cultural and social hierarchies, our fascination with status, taste and belonging has proved remarkably resilient. Philip Hensher explores how snobbery has evolved, why it continues to shape our behaviour and whether this much-maligned instinct might have some surprising virtues after all.

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Soiling the doilies

Can your choice of cutlery, the words you use at dinner or even the food on your plate betray your social class? Lydia Brownlow takes an amusing look at the unwritten rules of British dining, from childhood table manners to the changing fortunes of once-humble delicacies. Just how much do our eating habits reveal about us?

Perspective Media • Lydia Brownlow

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Words such as “toilet”, “pardon” and “dinner” were absolutely forbidden

Muck on the chaise longue

From Lady Chatterley to Jilly Cooper, romance across the class divide has long captured our imagination. But what happens when such relationships unfold in real life? Drawing on her experience as a relationship counsellor, Lucy Cavendish explores the unexpected attractions, awkward assumptions and emotional complexities of loving someone from a very different social world.

Perspective Media • Lucy Cavendish

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I have met countless couples on the therapy couch for whom the high-low allure works extremely well

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