Cooler, Faster, More Expensive: The Return of the Sloane Ranger [ハードカバー]

Talleyrand is supposed to have said that no one who grew up after 1789 could understand how sweet life had been under the Ancien Regime. I suppose the same thing applies to the Sloane Ranger world. I remember reading York's "Sloane Ranger Handbook" when it first appeared back in the long-ago early 1980s. The original book was a delight-- knowing, funny, and about a world that was dying away even then. The original Handbook appeared to an America fascinated with the "Brideshead" mini-series and the Royal Wedding, and America that had just made Lisa Birnbach's Preppy Handbook into a best seller. Anglophile Americans-- and I was certainly one --loved the idea of Sloane-dom. And-- let's be very clear --the Sloane World had its many virtues.

But then...the 1980s and 1990s happened. The Big Bang opened up the City, swarms of immigrants turned London into Londinistan, New Labour exalted modernisation and meritocracy, fox hunting was banned, and the whole Diana debacle introduced American celebrity-worship, emotionalism, and therapy-obsession into the Sloane world.

York's new book is about...well...celebrities and chavs with too much money and no hint of class. The "turbo-Sloane" types York profiles are simply American yuppies with accents (and not even old-guard ones). The 2008 Ranger has fallen prey to the American taste for celebrity and workaholism and accepted the chav equation of money and class.

"Cooler, Faster, More Expensive" is well-designed, sleek, and sometimes witty. But it lacks the delicacy of touch and knowingness that the original Sloane Ranger Handbook had, and it portrays a harder, less-polished, far less attractive world.

Short review: This brings the fun Official Sloane Ranger Handbook -- itself a knock-off of Lisa Birnbach's 1980 The Preppy Handbook -- up to date and it does it in a very thorough and imaginative style. The genre is simple: there is a certain class which has certain characteristics and dare we say, pretensions, and uses superficial means to identify "its own kind". The original Birnbach book was the first confirmation, in a fun book, of a group within our society which many recognized but few had quite bothered to describe. The Sloane Ranger handbook was about the English equivalent of the same group, many of whom lived near Sloane Square, with Princess Di as its primo example. It was every bit as fun and tongue-in-cheek as its inspiration.

This book shows how the whole English "Sloane scene" got a kick in the pants as a result of the economic changes in The City since the earlier book. With the arrival of the U.S. investment banks, commercial banks, hedge funds, etc., in the newly deregulated U.K. market, London suddenly rivaled New York as a financial capital. Britain's tax policy simultaneously encouraged huge amounts of money from Russian oligarchs and elsewhere to follow and suddenly much of the old Sloane real estate was priced beyond the reach of the locals, owned instead by American investment bankers, French portfolio managers and Russian . . . whatevers.

But far worse, it seemed that places like Goldman Sachs actually wanted you to know something about bonds if your were going to peddle the paper they were creating (as unlikely as that may seem in retrospect); it was no longer sufficient to have merely gone to Winchester with fellow old-boy Rupert. The arrival of all of this money also meant potential rewards well beyond what was ever dreamed of a few years earlier. Necessity provoked change, very unwanted change -- after all, tradition was the very core of the Sloane lifestyle -- but it also offered huge rewards to those who could adapt.

The new book tells of the various responses by the Sloanes of old. It's fun and it's funny. It creates a few fictional persona to illustrate each of the categories into which the writers believe today's Sloanes fall. Just three of the many examples described in the book: The brightest Sloanes are hugely successful, earn outlandish bonuses and are able to live the old lifestyle in spades: private planes, city and country places, winter vacations in the Caribbean, etc. Others couldn't cut it and became country mouses, unable to afford one of the most expensive cities in the world. Still others were from the right families and went to the right schools but weren't exactly the the sharpest knives in the drawer. But they had the charm, connections and ambition necessary to instead succeed by helping the socially inept but well-to-do from the U.S., Japan, Russian, or wherever meet the right people and host a successful party. They became well-wired "friends for hire" as party planners, caterers, etc., and as a result were able to hang on to the desired lifestyle.

The book works and would be a wonderful gift for your Anglophile friends. As a footnote, I would also suggest Sarah Lyall's The Anglo Files, another humorous look at the Brits today.

"COOLER, FASTER, MORE EXPENSIVE --THE RETURN OF THE SLOAN RANGER", by Peter York and Olivia Stewart-Liberty, is a well-presented, well-researched book on the present lives of the upper-upper and middle-upper classes in England that have always formed "Rangerdom".

On the cover five young Sloans, (three women and two men), walking purposefully and proudly in a line, with a dog in the middle. The picture only shows these people from the waist downwards, but the pride and purposefullness of their stride is evident, even without seeing their faces. Sadly -- for me at least -- all the young ladies seem to be wearing only boots and/or shoes, stockings and jackets! One can see where their garters attach to their stockings! Call me a prude -- but this is NOT how I, an American Anglophile, have ever pictured proper young Sloan and/or English ladies to dress! The young men are fully clothed in dashing jodphurs -- and the sexist connotation, to the sensitive person, is too obvious to ignore. The young ladies even seem to be walking half-a-step behind! This is doubly sad, as -- from the story within, it seems that Rangerdom has had to slow down a bit in just-previous years, and thus obviously needs all the strenghth and leadership it can get -- even(?) from proud young female Sloans! However, the stride of the young ladies seems no less proud than that of the their male companions. I only do wish they had been wearing skirts or dresses -- for a second reason, and that being so that female readers of this book could get some fashion cues from them. Even I must admit that there are some things in which males will always hold the lead -- rowing, building, protectiveness, etc -- so there should have been no need to display lady sloans showing garters, whilst the men are fully clothed! Sloandom needs ALL supporters to be treated EQUALLY, in my opinon! Please -- in the next edition, have the women as fully clothed as the men!

But happily, unlike other, previous books on Rangerdom by Peter York, (with other co-writers), THIS book is not only a hard cover, (previous books wsre both soft and hard cover), but it is almost definantly sumptuous. Full cloth covers greet one when the book
jacket is removed, with silver, (but alas, not gold), title printing on the spine. There is the high(est!) quality binding, (alternate colour -- in this case, a proud royal blue! -- and white boxes) in the spine...and -- so delightfully -- actual SEWN "signatures", as is always in the highest examples of the bookbinder's art! The paper is very white, and very much of the highest quality. COLOUR pictures, (at least one picture/photo on eery two-page spread!), absolutely flood the pages of this book, -- something not even done in the only previous, (albeit also wonderful), hard cover in this series, "The Sloan Ranger Diary", which had only black and white phootos -- albeit totally delightful ones. COOLER, FASTER, MORE EXPENSIVE is certainly a well-presented book! With one exception. Though the print size is nice and large, (on most pages, that is), it alternates between black lettering, (easy to see), a darker grey lettering, (slightly less easy to see), and a medium dark-green lettering, (very, very difficult to see in the smaller size print). How nice it would be for the sumptiousness, (and readability!) of print on all pages to match the sumptiousness, (and pridefullness), of the rest of this
book's design!

Within the pages of this book are listed, first, the reasons for Sloandom's sad, recent decline -- and it's even more recent return, albeit in a different form. The "Introduction" describes how the decline happened: In 1986 London was "deregulated", (the meaning of this term, as used here, escapes American me completely...but it would seem, from the following words, that London was now no longer regarded as many separate areas, but as one city. I hope I am correct in this assumption.) Anyway, it seems this co-incided with Americans coming into London commerce in a much larger way than they had heretofore. And Americans wanted MERIT, not cronyism or ancestry, as their criteria for hiring people. Diffidence about money vanised as Sloans suddenly realized they NEEDED money to continue their lifestyle -- and many weren't getting too much, because they did not met the new MERIT criteria insisted upon by the Americans and their ideas of "meritocracy". In his delightfully, authentically English, (and somewhat humourous) manner, Peter York describes the situation thusly:

".........The Sloan needed funds. And in order to compete he had to up his game. The young Sloan watched the flat on Pont Street being sold to finance the new roof in Gloustershire. He watched as his parents faded into the countryside, both a lot poorer. He saw how smartly dressed, cut-throat Europeans and Americans in London were raking in the cash, and Dammit! He wanted some. With billions being shared out as bonuses in the City at the end of every year, is it any wonder that Sloans have overcome their raft of inhibitions
about money? He smartened up, got rid of his conspicuously frayed collars, updated his wardrobe, and the Turbo Sloan was born....." (Seven types of Sloans now exist, (or eight, if you include Sloans characterized in the last chapter, "Sloan Off the Rails"), instead of just one, according to Mr. York, and there is a chapter in this book on every one.)

Typical Sloan views on Sloans themselves, (a hardy breed!), Kate Middleton, (she's basically OK...but missing that 'certain something' that Prince William's future consort should really have),
Diana, (she wasn't a real Sloan to begin with, and became less and less Sloan(ish?) as she went on), and the Royal Family, (the Queen and Zara Philips are to be admired, the rest of the Royal Family only tolerated), follow. After this are a list of 10 Sloan "Rules", 5 Sloan "No-Nos", and how to "Spot A Sloan". Following is a section on "The Sloan Diaspora", telling how Sloans don't usually live near "Sloan Square" anymore, and have been dispersed to different areas of London, (sob!) "The Importance of W10" tells how 'Turbo' and 'Party' Sloans like to live there. Following are short sections on "The Sloan House", "In the Country", Sloan attitudes on "Networks", "Charity", and "Politics", with sub-sections about Sloan attitudes toward "The New Labour", and on British politicans "Gordon" and "Dave". The section on "The Future" describes also what the typical Sloan does, and thinks, "ON Holiday." Another section in the "Introduction" follows, entitled: "Can You Grow Your Own Sloan", and is cocerned with the simularities, and differences, between 'growing up slown' now, and in the recent past. The last two paragraphs describe how it's "Smart to Be Sloan", and how Sloan customs have entered the movies, and how there are Sloan actors, comedians, polticians and models.

Following the "Introduction" are eight more chapters, each giving a full, complete, and somewhat sardonically humourous, (but always objective...and always, if possible, admiring) view of each of the now-present varieties of Sloan Rangers, that have evolved, due to circumstances, from the original one type of Sloan. These are:
"Eco Sloan", "Chav Sloan", "Thumping Sloan", "Sleek and Euro Sloan", "Turbo Sloan", "Bongo Sloan", (this starts with a picture of Prince William purposefully playing the bongo drums), "Party Sloan", and "Sloan Off The Rails". An array of the typical tastes and lifestyles of each "type" of Sloan is given, as well as a few well-chosen, real-life examples -- as well as many colour photos to
illustrate these examples. (It's fun for the reader -- even one in the far-off USA, as I am, to try to determine which type of Sloan he or she might be. As for myself, I see a part of myself in EACH type.)

The last chapter of the book, "Directory", gives the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and (where available), websites of merchants which will interest each individual type of Sloan. Following this is a list of "Picture Captions and Credits". Page numbers are convenienly given, so one can check where each caption belongs -- but I would have rather each caption gone on each page, instead of having them all listed together in the back of the book, so that one would know, for example, that the people dancing in the happy party scene on page 170, were attending the Mistletoe Ball in 2007, without having to go to the back of the book to look for the information!

All in all, this is a treasure-trove for Anglophiles, and for those who admire upper-class lifestyles, in general! After all, even in the most "meritocratic" of countries, (the USA), isn't that what the "American Dream" is all about? Written with wit and keen perceptive observation, with the best binding and paper, with pages sewn into signatures, full of wonderful telling illustrations, and with a "Directory to Die For", full of Sloan merchandise and stores, with addresses, phone numbers, and many websites -- this is THE ultimate "Sloan Learning Tool", for these times, the first few decades of the twenty-first century!