Inheritocracy It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad
By Eliza Filby
The Sunday Times Bestseller
Many of us grew up believing in a meritocracy, where hard work brings rewards. Go to university, get a job, put in the hours and things will be OK. That’s what we were told – but the reality is that life chances and opportunities are no longer shaped by what we learn or earn but by whether we have access to the Bank of Mum and Dad. We’re living in an inheritocracy, where parental support is what matters most – whether that’s covering the cost of university, stumping up for a house deposit or helping with childcare. And let’s be honest, this isn’t something we like to talk about with our friends, families or as a society. It’s a modern taboo.
In these pages, generational expert Eliza Filby explores the emergence of this inheritocracy through her own life story, revealing how her family’s financial circumstances shaped everything from her education to her dating life, from her career to her class identity. Inheritocracy is a thought-provoking and candid blend of memoir and cultural commentary, told through Eliza’s humorous and insightful voice.
With trillions of pounds set to be passed down the generations over the next two decades, a significant divide is emerging between those who can rely on family wealth and those who can’t. Inheritocracy offers a fresh, captivating and honest look at our recent past and a future that will be shaped – for better or worse – by family fortunes.
Reviews
“Eliza Filby’s nuanced, witty and evidence-driven book explains how we arrived where we are as a country today when it comes to the pivotal role families play in the foundations of economic success. Peppered with warm and thoughtful anecdotes from Filby’s own journey, Inheritocracy offers a new and innovative insight into the inherent advantages offered to those who can rely on family financial support and the real-life consequences felt by those who cannot. Bringing together contributions from economists to authors to politicians, this book offers a compelling analysis from start to finish.”
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
“Inheritocracy is both funny and important – it’s like a mash-up between Dolly Alderton and The Economist. Filby beautifully unpicks the major obstacles to growing up in the twenty-first century. Her book deserves to be read by every young person… and their parents.”
Rowan Pelling, co-editor of Perspective
“This is a very welcome book on one of the biggest social changes in Britain today – the growing significance of inheritance. Eliza Filby shows, with vivid personal examples, how this is transforming the relationship between successive generations.”
David Willetts, author of The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future – And Why They Should Give It Back
“Inheritocracy is that most valuable thing: a subtle, thorough, insightful look at a subject we all tend to shy away from. Filby is by turns funny, informative and familiar; we’re lucky to have her.”
Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic Years
“This is as much a personal history as it is a policy tract … Filby is refreshingly frank.”
Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman
“Inheritocracy lays out the stark message that ‘for anyone under 45’ life chances no longer correlate to meritocratic achievements, academic or otherwise. Instead, they now rely hugely on parental generosity.”
Julia Llewellyn Smith , The Times
“As the historian Eliza Filby explores in her on-the-nose new book, Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad, inter-generational wealth plays a much bigger role in home ownership for young people, or, where London is concerned, the ability to live at all while studying or getting a foot in.”
Zoe Strimpel, The Telegraph
“Very illuminating.”
Roddy Doyle on Start the Week, BBC Radio 4
Share this book
Buy this book
- Hardback, 304 pages
- ISBN: 9781785908583
- 26 September 2024
- £20.00
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781785908798
- 26 September 2024
- £14.99