Henry Hitchings, this paper’s theatre critic, turns his attention to the manners of the English. He’s terrific. He’s struck the perfect balance between hard academic insight and sheer readability — and achieves both. He tells us our fine distinctions of class have arisen from our circumstances — there are lots of people crammed into a small space: “By placing others, by putting them in particular compartments, we create more elbow room for ourselves”. He gets the essence of snobbery: “A driver in a Mercedes E350 looks down on a driver in a Mercedes E250 more than one in a KIA Picanto.”
