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An Uneasy Inheritance

My Family and Other Radicals

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An Uneasy Inheritance

By: Polly Toynbee
Narrated by: Polly Toynbee
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About this listen

***Chosen as a 2023 non-fiction highlight in the Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, The Tablet and Irish Times***

While for generations Polly Toynbee's ancestors have been committed left-wing rabble-rousers railing against injustice, they could never claim to be working class, settling instead for the prosperous life of academia or journalism enjoyed by their own forebears. So where does that leave their ideals of class equality?

Through a colourful, entertaining examination of her own family—which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford to Bertrand Russell, and features ancestral home Castle Howard as a backdrop—Toynbee explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.

©2023 Polly Toynbee (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Art & Literature Europe Great Britain Journalists, Editors & Publishers Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology Socialism

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An interesting story about and by a laudably principled journalist and her life and work.

Nice to have the author narrate

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I was born within a year or two of Polly, and was fascinated by the way her book ranged across the political landscape of both of our lives, with my life matching hers though in a very different financial milieu. I was not active in politics until briefly in my early retirement, and, though not expressed openly, ever, in what I believe were my parents’ footsteps, inheriting principles very much like Polly’s. As far as my earnings go, they have been lower than the more fortunate graduates on my university course, and my husband was a teacher rising rapidly to more senior positions. Nevertheless, the years when we needed to move house coincided with sharp rises in house prices!
Rather too much autobiography I fear, but it demonstrates some of the similarities with this book. My first degree was awarded by a redbrick university, the second by a college in Oxford not part of that university, but that university validated our degrees.
Thank you, Polly, for opening a fascinating view into the lives of your family, not least of your own life. I’m so pleased I decided to buy the book, and even more pleased to have read it!

Wonderful to reminded of my generation

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Polly Toynbee’s family has a well documented history and this blazingly honest and highly intelligent account is scrammed with interest . I enjoyed it all , not least the issues it raises. The problems and conflicts raised by the ‘uneasy inheritance’ are infinitely debatable!

Her distinguished forbears believed sincerely in a better future and dedicated their lives, in the words of Polly’s great grandfather the classical scholar Gilbert Murray, to the “progress of man” . An incident recorded in Polly’s arresting story seems to encapsulate the eventual semi-failures of some of her radical antecedents . Adolescent Polly was to accompany her father Philip Toynbee on a big CND march, the cause to which he was passionately committed. He gave a rousing speech to the huge crowd gathered before the start of the march, but afterwards he got only as far as a nearby pub where he drank s himself incapable of joining it. This seemed to me to be a cameo of the lives of so many of Polly’s family radicals filled as they were with noble resolutions but also too often to nurture the seed of self destruction and failure ,not least as parents. Polly indeed relates a great deal of ferociously bad parenting with its lamentable results over the decades.

Destructive ly heavy drinking recurs, as does serious depression . Polly’s great grandfather Harry Valpy Toynbee was totally dedicated in his work to alleviate the hardships of the urban poor, but his clash with Beatrice Webb on how help should be given sent him spiralling into a chasm of depression in which he lived in angry misery for decades cared for in a home.

Some of the achievements of these passionate radicals have been diminished by the passage of time. Polly’s grandfather the renowned historian Arnold Toynbee wrote his 12-volume A Study of History confident that it would stand as a monument for future generations. But who except a few serious historians today have heard of the great work, let alone read it?

As a leading highly professional , outspoken and strident journalist, Polly has her detractors who dismiss her (usually rudely) for being merely a Tory-hating Left-winger. This book shows the unfairness of this label. Constantly conflicted by her ‘uneasy inheritance’ , she is totally honest about the privilege and life chances her family connections have given her. She could not have changed the antecedents which have shaped her, but at least she has twice in her life tried out a wide range of poorly paid jobs for herself. This may seem, like her father’s disastrous social experiment to make the family home into a commune, as a ‘punishment for privilege’, and be dismissed as Orwellian tourism, but I admire her for it.

"What a strain it is to live one's life rightly!"

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I really enjoyed this memoir! Polly Toynbee is a wonderful narrator, I imagine she is a great bed time storyteller! The content was both entertaining, the little fun anecdotes and name droppings undergirded a highly informative discussion on (the middle) class and family dynamics over multiple generations!

Both informative and entertaining memoir

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I admired the openness and was particularly interested in the differences between 1970s and now, for example in real income, with a hospital porter or healthcare assistant now earning a third less in real terms than in 1970.

Loved it!

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I loved the interweaving of Polly's personal and family history, with that of the social and political history of the time.
Always better when read by the author.

Well written

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The anecdotes are interesting, but the pipe dreams of a poor little rich girl fail to
Impress. Without the possibility of self advancement there is little to be able to aspire to. She overstates her case in an almost abusive way.

Bitterness & the urge to perfect the world by removing excellence & promoting homogeneity.

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