From Working Class Hero to Absolute Disgrace

When Stephen Foster departed for London from his hometown of Stoke, he was wearing an army surplus jacket accessorised with a CND badge, and he took with him a distinct set of attitude problems. It was the late Seventies; the south-east was on the brink of a social and economic boom - think Thatcher, Yuppies, Wham! and Essex Man. These were awful times for working-class heroes like Stephen, those who believed in Arthur Scargill, who listened to Dylan and Joy Division, and who reviled the Porsche 911. The south was a travesty. He would never fit in - he couldn't. Three decades later he had turned into the kind of poseur who had a recipe book with instructions for making Eton mess and Smoked aubergine puree lying on his ornamental butcher's block next to his six-burner range in his nice middle-class kitchen. How had this disastrous state of affairs come about? From Working Class Hero to Absolute Disgrace is a riveting cultural memoir, funny and touching in equal measure. It will transport you back to one of the great con eras - when we were encouraged to put gel in our hair, wear blazers with rolled-up sleeves and turn our back on our roots...

ISBN 190602121X   Publication date 05 Feb 2009 ISBN13 9781906021214 (What's this?)   DEWEY 305.50942 Publisher Short Books Ltd   DEWEY edition DC22 Imprint Short Books Ltd   Published in London Format Paperback   Academic level General

I wept with laughter over the passages detailing his attempted seduction of various self-styled feminists: "Even when you performed until your tongue bled ... and your finger cramped, they would still be happy to let you know, over the post-coital roll-up, that their girlfriend was better at it, more accomplished and sensitive, just more, you know, empathetic." Rowan Pelling, Telegraph, February 24, 2009

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