2026-10-24 · Evening Standard
🔮 Smith explained that White Teeth’s characters live in the falling apart “dreg ends” of north-west London, but in the context of an “incredible, historic welfare system” with free education, subsidised housing and free healthcare.
“It is one of the most progressive moments of human history, certainly in the history of this country,” she said, telling Lipa how her father – born in 1925 – had to leave school at 13 because he could not afford the uniform. assertive