Middle Classes: Their Rise and Sprawl - Hardcover

'Based on a major BBC television series, MIDDLE CLASSES: THEIR RISE AND SPRAWL is a scintillating exploration of the mock-Tudor and net-curtained world of the English bourgeoisie.'Travis Elborough, WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY Simon Gunn and Rachel Bell have done lots of regional radio interviews including: BBC RADIO WALES, BBC GMR, BBC MIDLANDS LATE SHOW, BBC RADIO LEEDS, BBC RADIO BRISTOL, BBC WILTSHIRE SOUND, BBC RADIO SOLENT and BBC RADIO KENT. Frank McLynn in the SUNDAY EXPRESS (23/6) has given the book a 4-star review: '[The authors'] mix of anecdotes, case studies, and abstract discussion turns out to

The rise of the English middle class from the mid-nineteenth century onwards is one of the great untold stories of social history. Many of the most profound cultural changes of the twentieth century - the rise of concepts like professionalism, privacy, respectability, consumerism, the centrality of home - were driven by the inexorable expansion of the suburban middle class. The original BBC2 series (broadcast in early 2001) was rapturously received, combining interviews from over 50 people telling their own stories with comment and analysis by prominent historians and sociologists. The book will share this structure but will explore the subject in much greater depth.