'One of Us' is a British political drama based on the Boris Johnson era

Hey, it's Emperes Book of the Day, I'm Andrew Limbong.

There's something fascinating about the way British people treat social class.

Not that America doesn't have its own hang-ups about class, but over on that side of the

Atlantic, class lines seem to be more clearly drawn, even today.

But maybe that's all changing.

The novel, one of us, is about two friends, or maybe frenemies, who come from different

class backgrounds, something happens that leads to long-term resentment, and well, I'm

not going to spoil the book for you.

In this conversation with Emperes Scott Sleiman, author Elizabeth Day talks about power

and politics, and who gets the privilege of being welcomed into the inner circle in Britain.

That's coming up.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wayfair.

Refresh your space this spring, and make your home work better for you with Wayfair.

And furniture, decor, and essentials that fit your unique style and budget.

Without door furniture, patio, decor, and lighter bedding.

Installation and assembly services available for a truly seamless experience.

Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home.

That's w-a-y-f-a-i-r.com.

Wayfair.

Every style.

Every home.

Martin Gilmore teaches art history, and he's consumed by a festering resentment.

Way in the new novel, one of us, he confesses to the reader that he agreed to take the blame

for his best friend Ben had killed a young woman in a drunk driving accident decades ago.

Ben is a member of the celebrated Fitzmorris clan, an upper-crust British family, and

to secure Ben's future prospects, they gave Martin a substantial payout for his silence.

For a few comparatively happy years, the family counted on my discretion, and I foolishly

believed my loyalty was being rewarded with something like love.

But at Ben's 40th birthday party, my wife and I were unceremoniously dumped, cast overboard

like sacks of grain from a sinking boat.

Our faithful retainer ship was no longer required, we were told.

Ben would be standing for political office and needed to tidy up inconvenient loose ends

of which I was one.

And as your might guess has been reached for power, Martin does not stay silent, certainly

not tidy.

One of us is the latest novel from Elizabeth Day, who's also host of the hit podcast How

to Fail.

She joins us from our studios in New York.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

Help us understand this rivalry friendship at the center of the book between Ben and

Martin.

I have long been fascinated by outside a ship.

And Martin is in many ways the quintessential outsider.

So he came from a difficult background and he won a scholarship to an elite boarding school

in England.

And at that boarding school, he fixated on this wealthy aristocratic, glamorous young man

called Ben Fitzmorris.

And as you've just heard there, something happened at Ben's 40th birthday party, which

ensured the disruption and explosion of that friendship.

Several years later, Ben is on course to become the next British Prime Minister.

But Martin is hell-bent on revenge.

Martin is still somewhat in love with Ben, but he's never properly admitted it to himself

because he's struggled with his own identity.

And the idea of revenge, of nurturing it like a pet, it's the closest he can get to having

that love reciprocated.

When we meet Martin, he's in therapy.

Not much of a believer in therapy though, is he?

No.

Martin is an ascetic observer, which is partly why I really like writing him.

As someone who acts as a kind of gateway for the reader, he's a sort of perfect observer

of things.

But he's also quite bitter and resentful.

He's someone who has always wanted to make more of his life.

He's wanted to have power, but he's never been allowed into the inner circle because he

is not one of them, that's where the title one of us comes from.

And so he occupies this really interesting space where the things that could help him, he's

not allowing in because of his own bitterness.

Ben's revelatory, member of Parliament Richard Take, is also taken down by a scandal that

he comes roaring back, doesn't he?

He does.

So Richard Take was probably the character I had the most fun writing.

And the reason he was fun reading him too, I'm so happy to hear that, Scott.

As you say, he's a Tori MP, he was a front bench politician, but he lost his front bench

seat because of an indiscretion at work.

He was filmed on CCTV watching pornography on his office computer.

So Richard Take is determined to go on a rehabilitation programme and he does that very

modern thing that so many failed or disgrace politicians do in today's culture.

He goes on a reality TV show.

And that reality TV show reindeers him to members of the public who become familiarised with

him again.

And really what I wanted to look at there was how reality TV, whatever you think about

it, has become a sort of preeminent cultural force.

But I have to say, although he starts off as this sort of comic and absurd character,

he does go on a redemptive journey and I end up rather loving him because he's able

to learn from his failures.

I do feel the need to say it's a reality show about sewage workers.

With a title at least in the United States and broadcasting, we can't repeat word for

word.

Let's just call it stuff happens.

How's that?

Yes.

Perfect.

Among your lines I admire, you talk about how losing politicians can usefully resurface

as podcasters, quote, most of the podcasts feature two white men from different sides

of the political divide joshing agreeably while analysing the brokenness of a system they

contributed to breaking.

That's the formula, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm so thrilled you picked up that line.

You know, sometimes things annoy you so much and you wonder why people aren't saying

it and you almost have to write an entire book just to put a line in.

That was my line.

You're writing about Tories, members of Britain's Conservative Party seem to be the living

definition of privilege.

As I don't have to tell you, the current leader of the Conservative Party came, he made

knock a black woman from a Nigerian family of no particular privilege and Lord Peter

Mendelssohn, so recently charged in the Epstein case, was a labor political figure.

So are the Tories really figures of British privilege anymore?

Those are definitely shifting, thank goodness, but I was looking at a very specific era in

one of us, which was the Boris Johnson era, and there was a succession, I think there were

three Tory leaders who had gone to private school, sailed into Oxbridge and then went into

a career in politics without ever having lived a normal day as an ordinary person.

And I felt like there was such a disconnect there and I thought it also said a lot about

the electorate, to be honest.

There's something still so embedded, I think, in British culture, where we believe that

the people who speak properly and went to the right schools and are in some way characters,

we sort of trust that they're the experts.

And I'm glad to see that that is changing now, but I think that we still need to be

wary.

Do we in the public, as well as journalists, abide these lives because, in the end, they're

entertaining.

I mean, at least since the time of Shakespeare?

Yes.

And sure, I do think that with certain politicians, we mistake their joshing, characterful personalities

for someone that we are familiar with seeing down the pub or dancing badly at a family

wedding.

They become used to them and their character seems like qualification enough.

When you're running a country, you also need to have qualifications.

You can't just be the kind of man that you want to share a pint with.

And I think they are very entertaining these characters, as you rightly say, from the

days of Shakespeare onwards.

And the problem is, is that sometimes the character masks the danger.

Elizabeth Day, her new novel, one of us.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really loved this conversation.

And just a reminder that signing up for a book of the day plus is a great way to support

Emperors' book coverage and public media.

And you'll get to listen to every episode sponsor-free.

So please go find out more at plus dot npr dot org slash book of the day.

This message comes from live right, publishers of churn, the tension that divides us and

how to overcome it.

Author Claude Steele examines the stress people can experience in life's culturally

diverse settings and how to build trust.

Churn, available now.

This message comes from Rosetta Stone.

If you have travel coming up like a spring break or summer vacation, imagine arriving

actually understanding the language Rosetta Stone has been the trusted leader in language

learning for over 30 years with millions of users and 25 languages to choose from.

Ready to start learning a new language this spring?

Visit rosettastone.com slash npr today to explore Rosetta Stone and choose the language

that's right for you.

This message comes from Bombas.

When you're playing sports, you're focused.

Your socks should be too.

Use this engineer socks to fight sweat and cushion impact for every sport.

Visit bombas.com slash npr and use code npr for 20% off your first purchase.