In his beautifully written novel, Birdsong, author Sebastian Faulks describes pre-World War I France, Wartime France and England and 1970s England very well. One paragraph was of particular importance in my opinion, the one in which the narrator describes the people around a well-known posh area of London:
“Outside he breathed deeply on the thick air of Piccadilly. Across the street he saw the arches of the Ritz hotel with its name lit up in bulbs. Women in trimmed fur coats and their escorts in sleek grey suits and black hats went through the doors. They had an air of private urgency, as though they were bent on matters of financial significance or international weight that would not even permit them to glance towards the ingratiating smile of the doorman in his top hat and gold frogging. They disappeared through the glass, their soft coats trailing behind them, oblivious to the street or to any life but theirs.*”
* – my emphasis.
I found it a very true depiction of the types of people you still see in that area (Green Park, St. James’s Park). Whenever I happen to go by those doormen, I smile to them and say Good Morning or the like, because I have seen the “elite” walk by these people as if they were non-existent. Such arrogance is not to be born, but that is why we must never look down on others who do such jobs, for they in many cases deserve more respect than the rich woman or rich man who happen to be able to afford to spend a night or two in the Ritz.
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