• Young Fogey

There was a brief moment in the mid or late 1980s when a certain kind of Brideshead revivalism and non-Thatcher strands of Toryism came together in a fashion moment that gave rise to Young Fogeyism. (Yes, Niall Ferguson was part of this) I was on the other side of the pond and, like so many American liberal arts kids of my day, loved the fashion part of this. The first two or three 'Brideshead' episodes were where we all wanted to live. We all wanted to be (even many of the girls) Young There was a brief moment in the mid or late 1980s when a certain kind of Brideshead revivalism and non-Thatcher strands of Toryism came together in a fashion moment that gave rise to Young Fogeyism.

(Yes, Niall Ferguson was part of this) I was on the other side of the pond and, like so many American liberal arts kids of my day, loved the fashion part of this. The first two or three 'Brideshead' episodes were where we all wanted to live.

We all wanted to be (even many of the girls) Young Gentlemen with Eton jackets and Oxbridge scarves and decanters of good port in our rooms at King's or Trinity. I suppose it was all part of the aesthetic conservatism that the 1980 Preppy Handbook made popular in the States. And, yes, social-democratic aging me is still attracted to the Young Fogey world. The Young Fogeys themselves have long been marginalised, both by the New Labour world and the David Cameron kind of conservatism. But it's hard to be a reader of Waugh or Mitford or even Eliot and not still love this book.

Suzanne Lowry is the author of Young Fogey Handbook (4.20 avg rating, 10 ratings, 1 review, published 1985), La Vie En Rose (4.11 avg rating, 9 ratings.

Young Fogey

THE WYKEHAMIST Broad of Church, and broad of mind, / Broad before and broad behind, / A keen ecclesiologist, / A rather dirty Wykehamist. / 'Tis not for us to wonder why / He wears that curious knotted tie; / We should not cast reflections on / The very slightest kind of don. / We should not giggle as we like / At his appearance on his bike; / It's something to become a bore, / And more than that, at twenty-four. / It's something too to know your wants / And go full-tilt for Norman fonts. / Just now the chestnut trees are dark / And full with shadow in the park, / And 'six o'clock!' St Mary calls / Above the mellow college walls / The evening stretches arms to twist / And captivate her Wykehamist. / But not for him these autumn days / He shuts them out with heavy baize; / He gives his Ovaltine a stir / And nibbles at a 'petit beurre', / And satisfying fleshly wants / He settles down to Norman fonts.

John Betjeman, 1932 Dedication.