My book, Piggy Monk Square, was Twitter-mentioned yesterday – in a list of ‘working-class’ writers.
It wasn’t the first time I’ve found myself and my writing classified as working class.
I was brought up in Toxteth, Liverpool. Our house had no hot water, shower bath or inside toilet.
At that time, my father worked night shifts sorting letters in the post office, and my mother worked in a biscuit factory, as well as taking in sewing and mending to make ends meet – so yes I think this qualifies me as working class and that’s fine by me.
But it did get me thinking about the whole class issue.
You see one day I grew up and did a sociology course and it was there I found myself discussing the itchy subject of class with a sociology lecturer. She told me that valuing education and wanting a career were middle-class values.
That infuriated me because to this day I hate this idea of sticking people in boxes and leaving them there forever.
And even more, I hate a way of thinking that attributes all positive values to the middle class while stereotyping, stigmatising, demonising and very possibly demoralising the working class.
Income, living and working conditions are the main differences between classes. That doesn’t stop working class people from having aspirations, hopes, dreams and goals even though they are harder to achieve because let’s face it – poverty and inequality make everything harder.
It’s not just about money either. Many successful people forget how much of their road to success was paved by their connections.
It should go without saying that it is more difficult to achieve specific goals when daddy doesn’t have a friend who works in publishing and mummy doesn’t have relations working in television.
But it’s frustrating to me when I see a lack of money, opportunity and connection being confused with a lack of aspiration.
You won’t find too many working-class kids saying they’re dying to grow up so they can push a mop around an office block at six in the morning.
However, let’s not be naive; let’s be fair instead.
It’s only fair to acknowledge that achieving success in any field is harder if you’re broke and working-class, but it’s also fair to say it’s not impossible either.
If it were, I’d be pushing a mop instead of a pen myself.
I want to emphasise ‘not impossible’ because I’d hate to think that any working class child would give up their aspirations and goals because of these differences.
I hate that because I did it myself – but only for a while.
It would be great if inequality and poverty were eradicated, but I’m not seeing too many pigs flying around the Galway hills so until then maybe the best way to deal with differences is first to acknowledge them, then use them – turn them into the fuel that makes us determined.
Determination costs nothing. We should encourage it because it’s worth its weight in flying pigs.
THE SUNSHINE GIRL
Secrets, lies and laughter.
Raining bills. A dead end job.
Josie knows she’s trapped.
A smiling stranger brings hope but she doesn’t listen when friends say he’s hiding something.
Instead, she brings him home to prove them wrong, but this is her big mistake because his secret could destroy her family.
The Sunshine Girl is a funny and nostalgic look back at 1970s Liverpool.
The Sunshine Girl is now available
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