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 the white working class, long before the contemporary intellegentsia began to demonise them.

Granta £12.99 240pp