And shared breakfast with a young couple. We were talking about the differences between the US and UK, and got onto social class. I said that really, class in the US is primarily about income (I know, complicated, but money matters most).
What about the UK?
The woman laughed, and said I would never be able to figure out the complications of class in Britain. She said she was solid working class, but 'the RESPECTABLE working class who are really lower-middle, because my parents expected me to go to university."
What about her husband?
She laughed and said, "Oh, Paul is POSH. His mother's second husband is the son of a bishop."
I agreed that with delineations like that, I'd never figure out class in the UK!
And then--
Just to say things are different there classwise, the 'highest class' of all (the royals) can be very... downmarket. A friend and I stayed at a lovely but very low-priced bnb on the edge of Dartmoor. This was in the early 80s.
When we got there, the landlady was in a bit of a tizzy. She said that Prince Charles had just left, having been in the area on some official ribbon-cutting business. He had stayed the night. His only retinue was his driver/guard.
She showed us her guestbook, where across one whole page was scrawled, "Charles."
My friend got to stay in the room he'd stayed in, so that she could afterwards tell people that yes, she had shared Prince Charles's bed. (I can only say that I shared his driver's bed. )
I've never forgotten that the future King of England chose to stay in a bnb that I could afford. It was 27 pounds a night.
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