Ambitious, impressive... There is fury contained within the pages and between the lines of Respectable... an intelligent and important book that deserves to be widely read -- Colin Grant * Guardian * Hanley vividly describes the "risky, lonely journey" she undertook from one class to another... She is tremendous at detailing her personal transition -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Why is class still so central to the experience of living in Britain? It is an urgent question, evaded through a kind of collective shame, but Lynsey Hanley approaches it with wit and passion. Respectable is pithy and provoking, spiced with the personal but solidly grounded in a lifetime's experience of analysing the world around her. It is one of those valuable books that enables the reader to re-think her past and re-experience her own life. -- Hilary Mantel Honest, brave and moving, Respectable opens up the emotional experience of navigating across class boundaries in an unequal world. -- Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level