Jonty Claypole

You gave me no jokes.

Give us a reading from this book, Sophie.

That's completely true.

The other thing that I really like about this book is that Sittenfeld, and I was looking at some of the interviews she did when it came out.

And in one of them, she talked about her experience going to Groton as a girl.

And Lee is not a straight swap-in for herself.

And she's been very insistent in saying that, although obviously there's a lot of overlap.

And Sittenfeld...

grew up in the Midwest and went to Groton, which is the school that Ault is based on.

A big difference is that the Lee character comes from a much more what one would call lower middle class background.

And I use that term in this context because it comes up in the book.

And we've talked about lower middle class in the British class system.

It's our favourite class.

And it comes up in this book where LMC, standing for lower middle class, is like the worst thing you can say about someone.

And so Lee comes from a lower middle class background and is deeply ashamed about that and spends pretty much her entire school career concealing her background, her father's job, everything about her life.

And one of the most excruciating scenes in the middle of the book is when her parents come for a parents weekend at the school and

And there's a moment where her home life and the school clash.

But the big difference between Lee and Curtis Sidenfeld herself is that Sidenfeld didn't come from that background.

She came from a much more affluent background.

So although she came from the Midwest, her father was an investment banker.