The Middle Class is a canter through the history of the men and women who made modern Britain and who now, in greater numbers than ever, dominate the country. There are pauses to analyse their ideals, dreams, ambitions and tastes. The book opens with Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and ends with Margaret Thatcher and her translation of middle-class values into public life. On the way, we encounter sly lawyers, foxy businessmen and women, lesbian farmers, Regency fashion magazines, prize fights, Victorian protests against unreliable trains, collapsing banks, religious revivals, early advice on contraception, pop music and Greens at war with by-passes. At every stage, we hear the authentic voices of the middle classes at work, at prayer, at play and in dispute.