This quotation from a short piece by Rosemary Hill in the London Review of Books neatly illustrates both the abiding fascination of snobbery and the way in which it routinely intervenes into everyday conversations, as well as the variety of ways in which snobbery may manifest itself. Other examples provided by Hill, in a piece that is less than a page in length, include Anthony Powell (‘the snob’s snob’) and his insistence that his name should be pronounced ‘poel’, and the hierarchy of modern British universities.

Almost inevitably, I find myself asking the question asked by Virginia Woolf: ‘Am I a snob?’ Until very recently I was a ‘PC plodder’, although my partner has a Mac and usually manages to conceal her disdain. I have little interest in the practices of Prince William, Carole Middleton and their friends (but is this an example of ‘inverted snobbery’?). I do tend to regard the practice of photographing meals a little odd, and I am prepared to allow myself that small sliver of snobbery. And perhaps the reader may consider me to be a bit of a snob in quoting from the London Review of Books and referring to Virginia Woolf in that academic, name-droppery sort of way.

Clearly there is enough to fascinate here, as I have discovered when I told other people that I was writing a book on this topic. Examples of snobbery, or alleged snobbery, abound in all areas of social life. And then there is the added complication of inverted snobbery – of, say, claiming to prefer James Bond films (and preferring Roger Moore over Daniel Craig) to Tarkovsky. Further, an accusation of snobbery may not always be taken negatively. Under certain circumstances, to claim to be a snob oneself is equivalent to claiming that you are someone interested in maintaining standards.

Latham refers to ‘snobbery’s curious pleasures’, and this is certainly reflected in the quotations that deal with snobbery that can be found in reference books.