I am posting a link to James Wood’s admirable and thoughtful critique of the intellectual origins of his generation of Etonians, schooled by Eric Anderson, the Scottish headmaster whose name he has inexplicably forgotten, in the responsibilities of noblesse oblige, but which has turned instead into arrogant self-regard and destructive nostalgia:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
It’s an excellent piece. Eric Anderson was also Tony Blair’s housemaster at Fettes.
Although I am frequently irritated by LRB, rarely am able to read it all and regret the relative paucity of women writers and subjects, articles like this keep me paying my decades-old sub.
Interesting to read the LRB piece after Simon Kuper’s withering destruction of the ’80s Oxford politicos in last Saturday’s FT. Same names crop up in both…..
Read both the FT and the LRB piece, sobering! Hunt not a lot better either.
Decent, but dull is surely better than arrogant and self-obsessed.
Anyone is better than Boris, but Hunt’s record with the NHS made me dislike him too.
Eric Anderson was a wonderful Head, and his wife, Poppy, is a joy. If only there were more like him.
He did not have a high opinion of Tony Blair at Fettes.
Dear Mark, I’m glad you’re back in the Comments section and completely agree with you about Eric Anderson. I can’t imagine he thought much of the antiquated priggishness of Jacob Rees-Mogg. Charles
Thank you, Charles. It is a joy to be back, reading your Blog – I really missed it. It’s as good as ever.
We all missed your Comments ! Charles