The Prudent Anthropologist – 22 August 2025

You may not have known that you want to spend your weekend reading a comprehensive study of social patterns and cultural values in twenty-first century Britain but, trust me, you do. Welcome to Anthropology Unit 1. Please open your textbook, Bougie Babies Boss Brunch.

Harriet Evans and illustrator Kim Faria have captured something deep, something authentic: the import of that first babyccino (first of the day, that is, following too much fun at that playgroup*) and the significance of a trip to the farmer’s market.

It is imperative to meet different characters and places through a book but sometimes one needs to see oneself. All those babies cuddling cavapoos and refilling jars with chia seeds at the zero-plastic shop, this is for you.  

Once you are familiar with the customs of the bougie baby’s packed morning (brunch, pilates, video call with the elders regarding dinner plans at that new orange wine and small plates bar), I do recommend the novel The Anthropologists, in which Ayşegül Savaş asks similar questions, with as much wit and perhaps more character development – what traditions matter, how to create new rituals, how to make a home in a foreign city, how to maintain ties with family even as one becomes a stranger to them and when is it OK to break up the drinking party.  

Asya met Manu when they were students, recognising in him a kindred spirit and fellow foreigner. Their shared language is that of this unnamed country though years later they are still not natives and never expect to be. Over drinks with their friend Ravi they set the world (their small one, at least) to rights. At a café, Asya strikes up a conversation with the enigmatic woman she sees there every day, the Great Dame. At dinners with their elderly neighbour, they find their roles, laughing as they deliver the same familiar lines every time. Is this Life? Real Life? It is a subtle and charming portrayal of it and its study.   

There is an excellent moment in Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym when Miss Doggett announces that Miss Lathbury has married a man who does some kind of scientific work, an anthropophagist, she claims. Jane is unsure how to receive the news until she ventures that perhaps the gentleman is instead an anthropologist.

Regular customers who have already indulged me may think my Barbara Pym obsession is getting a little out of hand. But I won’t rest until you’ve all read at least one of her books. Jane and Prudence is about post-war Britain, expectations of women and marriage, loving a man who keeps tiny animal-shaped soap figurines in the downstairs bathroom and why a vicar’s wife in a country parish cannot cook with garlic.

Stay too long in the shop and I may also explain my love for Pym’s Less than Angels, which follows the studies and romances of some rather hapless anthropologists, not all of them great at getting on with their research though they make amusing lunch companions and will help you move a sofa, Excellent Women, in which the aforementioned Mildred Lathbury finds herself the confidante of many people whose relationships are at pivotal moments due to a hot saucepan being placed on a walnut table or a misunderstanding with a priest and Some Tame Gazelle, a novel about two brilliant sisters, an Italian Count and a herd of curates (sans gazelles). Then we can all have a good cry over Quartet in Autumn, in which four people who have worked in the same office for years know nothing about each other.

Having studied Anthropology According to Barabara Pym, you are ready to throw out all the rules and come to a jazz gig with TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker. ‘Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?’ a man calls out, interrupting a trumpet solo. Inevitably, someone is filming. Inevitably, the footage is online within moments. Inevitably, you will be drawn into a sort of comedy of manners, riotous with characters falling in love inappropriately, lecturing each other on ethics and distracted by the philosophy of hair.

If the characters in TonyInterruptor think both the interruption and the filming of it scandalous, wait until they meet Annie Besant. From her role as Christian wife to president of the Theosophical Society to first female president of the Indian National Congress, The Nine Lives of Annie Besant by Clare Paterson is a meticulous biography of a woman who, in one of her many lives, was charged with breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857 for publishing a guide to birth control. She was formidable and would certainly have interrupted a jazz concert if she, or a spirit she was channelling, wanted to ask a question.

You are all invited to Anthropology: a Study of Survival, Wrestling and Humphrey Bogart with Dane Holt’s Father’s Father’s Father. I will be reading this repeatedly for years and will not attempt a précis. There is a poem about asking for advice from a veal cutlet. There is a poem about W. S. Merwin and smoking.

Of course, if you really want to know a person, look Down the Back of the Chair. That is also Mary’s advice when her father loses his car keys. In Harriet Evans’ picture book, there is more than just a fiver or a few crumbs to be discovered there. Stand by for Uncle Bill’s will, a charming eel and a long-lost twin.

May your weekend be bougie – see you at the terrarium convention (not that one, the one in the hot yoga studio behind the sourdough salon),
Lizzie

* Kudos if you recognise the reference here**

** It is that perfect examination of etiquette, fraternal ties, how to bring up children, seduction rituals in dance, the insidious nature of Disney and the role of advertising in creating a monster, Addams Family Values.