Don’t You Dare Tell Me That!
At school, pupils and teachers bullied Louise Powell because her parents got Income Support. She found solace and friendship in greyhounds and racing. But then the bullies came back.
Read Now Read Now
Spotlight
The Power of a Happy Meal
"This was not about nutrition. It was not about filling them up. It was absolutely not about the peace of sharing a meal. It was about belonging in a society that had no place for us."
A Guide to Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell
Dreda Say Mitchell was told that “someone like her” would never be accepted as a writer. But in 2004 her east London-set novel Running Hot became a hit – and changed British crime fiction.
David Olusoga on Home and Belonging
How the working-class historian learned to reject his rejection
The Working Class Library Episode 8: Running Hot by Dreda Say Mitchell
Lee Child joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel Running Hot.
The Working Class Library Episode 7: This Sporting Life by David Storey
David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This Sporting Life.
A Guide to This Sporting Life by David Storey
Georgia Poplett’s introduction to David Storey’s novel and film about a young rugby league star in 1960s Yorkshire, and its place in the Northern Realist and Angry Young Men movements.
A Guide to Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Siobhan McShane’s introduction to the plot, characters and historical background of Frank McCourt’s working-class memoir of growing up in poverty in Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s.
Latest Posts
As Council as They Come
If you don’t understand why the Beckhams are working class heroes, maybe you don’t understand the working class.
Willy Vlautin’s Everyday People
Willy Vlautin has won the Joyce Carol Oates prize for his heartbreaking novel **The Horse.** The Bee met up with him to talk about his hard-living characters, Trump, and his worst-ever job.
The Working Class Library Episode 2: Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
Louise Doughty joins us to consider the place of Hilary Mantel’s memoir in our library.
An Introduction to Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
Her working-class background was overlooked, but the double-Booker winner said it determined how she saw the world.
Publishing’s Class Problem
When you’re a child, your social class doesn’t determine how good you are at reading and writing. Yet half of our published writers are from middle-class backgrounds, and only 10 per cent are working class. Why?
Confessions of Nothing
How I revolutionised mascara at the age of seven in my mum’s car and how she didn’t understand.
The Working Class Library Episode 1: New Grub Street by George Gissing
Gissing expert Simon James joins us to consider how **New Grub Street** became so topical again, and to ask if it deserves a place in our fantasy library.
An Introduction to New Grub Street
How the troubled George Gissing inspired Orwell, and foretold the influence of Amazon, BookTok and poverty porn.
Plastic Venus
**“Life was hard in the city over the river. The summer’s riots still smouldered. Then one day, a car crossed the river. A Merc, with windows tinted darker than the night.”**
Hickling Hands
**“From the top of the hilly field, he looked down to the factories where he used to work, dog treats, loose change and his phone jangling in his fleece pocket.”** Mie Murasa looks back on her friendship with her grandad in Noughties Sheffield.
Procurement Process Blues
How did it become so hard to get paid what you’re owed?
A Class of Our Own
The world needs more working-class writers. The Bee is going to find, nurture and publish them.
