Yesterday for instance, I decided to make a summer fruits genoise sponge and today I thought I would make a bit of a ‘posh’ meal for myself, which for me qualifies as making fondant potatoes and pea puree with roasted chicken. After said meal, I just sat down and poured myself a glass of sorry-for-myself white wine (which I, of course, used in the sauce for the accompanying roast chicken), then I thought, fuck, am I middle class?

Now, I’m not usually one for labels, and this isn’t meant to be a deep and meaningful post, but I think the idea of modern class classification is interesting and I think it has changed an awful lot over the past century. Growing up I always considered myself ‘working class’. My Dad was a welder, builder, tarmac/road worker and most of my family history is in working as labourers. I remember my Dad telling me to ‘get a clean job’ when I was a kid, and I remember him coming home covered in all sorts of muck and wondering if he just rolled around in the dirt for a living. He worked extremely hard to provide for us 2.4 children. So as I sit here digesting my fondant potatoes and feeling excited that Sue Perkins responded to one of my tweets today, I have to think ‘how did I get here?’ and the whole idea of class crossed my mind.

I don’t feel like I’m middle class, In fact I don’t feel like anything at all, but if you wrote down what I do for a living and most of my habits and political leanings, I guess I am ‘middle class’ in a way. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think if you are bought up as staunch, working class fella, you get a sense of pride and a strong sense of identity, so the idea of becoming something else…I’m not sure how to feel.

On the other hand there is an ENORMOUS division between the rich and the poor. Since leaving University I have struggled quite hugely with money, but that’s another story. If class is based around money, then I am definitely near the bottom, but I think I am in a similar boat to a lot of people leading similar lives to me, and you know what, I think a lot of us are happy because we are rich in other things, creative people tend to have a sunnier outlook on being a financially challenged.

Ultimately, I think the idea of classifying things is bollocks, because in my case I span a number of those classic class archetypes but I think our culture forces us to classify ourselves in many different ways. I feel privileged that I am doing a ‘clean’ job that I want to be doing, am involved, partake and work in arts and culture, and can just make fondant potatoes at 11pm at night, so whatever that makes me, I’m that.