Published Thurdsay 15th July 2004
‘Demonized, mocked and blamed for all the nation‘s ills by Right and Left alike, the British white working class are the eternal scapegoats for the mealy-mouthed media creeps who would rather die than be racist or sexist. Michael Collins brave and brilliant book comes at a time when the New Snobbery has reached its hateful height. My feeling is that he may well make thousands of the allegedly ‘educated‘ hang their heads in shame. And not before time, too‘
Julie Burchill
‘Thoughtful and provocative, it should be read by any fool eager to dismiss whole swathes of society‘ GQ Magazine
‘As timely as it is compelling, The Likes of Us brings the past to life in a way which reviews our current experience of the modern city. Aspiration, struggle and prejudice; the poetry of ordinary places and the heroism of everyday lives‘ Michael Bracewell
Once they were portrayed as the salt of the earth. Nowadays, they take to the streets when paedophiles and asylum seekers are in their midst; they expose their lives in TV documentaries; they love Gucci and hate the Euro - the broadsheets cast them as xenophobes and exhibitionists and mock their tastes and attitudes. Who are the white working class and what have they done to deserve this portrayal?
In this controversial book, South East-London born Michael Collins, defends the white working class against such slurs and caricatures. He argues that their culture is intimately linked to a landscape and a concept of home - in his case, Southwark, where his family lived for generations. As Collins delves into his family‘s history he discovers that missionaries from other classes have always descended to study, influence, patronise and politicise them, long before the contemporary intelligentsia began to demonize them. The Likes of Us is a fascinating and wholly original examination of London‘s white working class.
Michael Collins was born in Walworth, south-east London, in 1961. He has worked as a television producer and scriptwriter, and has written for various publications including the Observer, Guardian, Independent, Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times.
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
