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Sad Little Men
Sad Little Men
Sep 22, 2024 11:22 PM

Author:Richard Beard

Sad Little Men

'Read this book' Alastair Campbell

'A really wonderful book' Nigella Lawson via Twitter

In 1975 Richard Beard was sent away to boarding school. So were Boris Johnson and David Cameron.

He didn't enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was not to let that show.

A public school education has long been accepted in Britain as a preparation for leadership, but being separated from your parents at a young age is traumatic. What sort of adult does it mould? Tackling debates about privilege head-on, Sad Little Men reveals what happens when you put a succession of men from boarding schools into positions of influence, including at 10 Downing Street, and asks the question: is this really who we want in charge?

'The most important book I've read this year' Adam Rutherford

Reviews

Read this book

—— Alastair Campbell

Definitive and brilliantly expressed

—— Viv Groskop

Dazzling in its anger and the force of its argument

—— Times Literary Supplement

A sensitive and incisive analysis of the British class system...insanely readable

—— Tom Holland, author of Dominion

One of the finest polemics I have ever come across... Sad Little Men has been an eye-opener

—— Spectator

A sensitive and incisive analysis of the British class system has no right to be as insanely readable and enjoyable as this book manages to be

—— Tom Holland, author of Dominion

Engaging and readable, powerful and cogent. A vivid portrait of the political elite exposed for the vulnerable men/ children they are

—— Joy Schaverien, author of Boarding School Syndrome

If you want to understand the aura of entitlement and untouchability shrouding our governing class, look no further than Beard's witty, unsparingly sharp and deeply moving anatomy of the emotional culture of England's boarding schools

—— Josh Cohen

Read this book

—— Alastair Campbell

Utterly compelling, top proper stuff. I loved it to bits. The energy of it! I really felt for them (all) by the end

—— Ian Marchant, Author of A Hero for High Times

Really good, clever, dazzling in its anger and the force of its argument

—— Nicola Shulman , Times Literary Supplement

[A] brilliant book... Beard's breathtaking personal account of the British habit of the British habit of institutionalising elite children captures all the nuances and subtleties of the boarder's undoing and its lasting legacy into adulthood

—— Nick Duffell , Therapy Today

Definitive and brilliantly expressed

—— Viv Groskop

[A] brilliantly excoriating book

—— New Statesman

A pleasant and heartfelt account of one man's brief journey into and out of education... unquestionably funny... poignant and very personal

—— Emma Williams , Schools Week

Very funny, often inspiring, occasionally tragic - and a timely reminder of the unforgettable influence of great teachers

—— Daily Mail

Engaging . . . Kessler approaches her topic with even-handedness and rigour.

—— Maclean’s

Brilliantly in-depth not only in the explanations of the gig economy, but in the narratives of people who work gigs as well.

—— Washington Times

As well-reported, and at times as emotionally wrenching, as Amy Goldstein’s Janesville . . . In facing . . . the fraying of the social contract between employer and employee, Sarah Kessler's work in Gigged makes one thing increasingly clear: we must get busy building a new one that benefits all sides of that relationship, and the society around it.

—— Editor’s Choice , 800 CEO Read

Goes under the bonnet of the gig economy.

—— What CEOs Are Reading , Management Today

Kessler’s recent book Gigged is all about [the] desire for independence . . . Kessler investigates the liberating ethos and terrible trade-offs of this new economy by following several people working in such positions. She discovers why the revolution in “independent contractor” work – which comes without guarantees for minimum wages, paid vacation, or health benefits – is paradise for one slice of the population, but has been disappointing, and in some cases devastating, for others.

—— Quartz

For those interested in inquiries into modern (and future) work, there’s Gigged by Sarah Kessler, an analysis of the gig economy.

—— Books of the Year , Buzzfeed News

Looks at the potential of the gig economy and ultimately the problems it bears.

—— Books of the Year , Fast Company
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