HONESTLY, I WAS a bit shocked. Not only because it was so pointed an accusation but because I hadn’t an inkling my friend felt that way. We were drinking orange wine of an evening, talking taboos, when I mentioned something about being middle class. ‘But you’re upper class,’ she replied. 

I was surprised – in part because my mum was a teacher and my dad a public servant. Each was the first in their family to get a university degree. We didn’t go on fancy holidays, and I paid for my own university education. My income is from labour, not capital. It hadn’t occurred to me that I would be anything other than middle class. But this is Australia, and when I later heard Cate Blanchett describe herself as ‘middle class’ at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, I remembered this interaction.