I'm heading off for Devon today, to Dartington and the Ways With Words Festival - and with some trepidation.This is the first time I have dared to articulate my thesis about the middle classes in public since the publication of my book Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes? at the beginning of May. Since then, there has been huge publicity - not all of it very polite.
My favourite among the emails I received culminated in this peroration:
"Instead you defer to your sad obsession with class, and in fact your boo-hoo story about the nouveau-pauvre middle class will leave many of your compatriots happy to see you suffer in your plight. And, in my opinion, not unjustly so.”
Quite right. So, as you can see, I'm a little nervous of putting my head above the barricade. And don't think for a moment that I'll be safe among the middle classes of Dartington: the middle classes are the angriest.
So come along and join the debate. I'm speaking at 1pm tomorrow (Monday). See you there!