Lord Peter Hennessy presents his highly personal essay examining the concept of the rise of the meritocracy (a word coined by Michael Young in 1958) and the persistence of a shadowy notion of an establishment.
‘If you want to know what the establishment thinks of itself, look at this.’ The Guardian
 Peter Hennessey, Fellow of the British Academy, was educated at grammar school in Stroud, St John’s, Cambridge, the LSE, and was Kennedy Scholar, Harvard 1971-2. He is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He was a journalist for twenty years with spells on The Times, The Financial Times and The Economist and a presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme. He sits as an independent crossbench Peer in the House of Lords as Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield. His many books include Distilling the Frenzy: Writing the History of One’s Own Times (one of IoS Books of the Year 2012), Having It So Good (winner of Orwell Prize 2007), and The Secret State (2002).
This afternoon’s events are sponsored by Paula Kaplan, The Kennington Bookshop
Tel: 0207 735505 www.thekbookshop.com