Party Going

The book is about a group of what would have been dubbed ‘bright young things’ in the 1920s, aimless young people from the upper classes.  They are about to set off to go to a party that’s taking place on the continent. It is a particularly foggy day and they never make it.  They end up having a party in a hotel in Waterloo station.  Around them in the station swirls the mass of people – the working classes – threatening to intrude into their lives.  Henry Green was himself a bright young thing.  He was educated at Eton and Oxford and a friend of the whole “Brideshead generation” but in this book he points out that the class system is changing and there won’t be a role for rich people who do nothing with their lives.

Downton Abbey Books