"I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t self-pity or bragging. It’s pre-emptive framing. As an impressionist and satirist, Bremner’s authority comes from sounding like the people he’s skewering. This line quietly explains how he acquired the vocal toolkit: the vowels, the manners, the ease with power. It also plants a small moral question under the laugh: if you’re trained by the system, can you ever fully stand outside it?
There’s subtextual self-awareness in the clippedness. No sentimental childhood detail, no heroic struggle, just two social coordinates. That dryness reads as a wink: he knows class talk is both impolite and unavoidable in British life, and he’s choosing the most “polite” possible way to say something sharper. It’s a comedian’s way of admitting complicity while keeping his edge - the insider who makes a living exposing insiders.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bremner, Rory. (2026, January 16). I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-an-edinburgh-middle-class-childhood-and-a-94997/
Chicago Style
Bremner, Rory. "I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-an-edinburgh-middle-class-childhood-and-a-94997/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I had an Edinburgh, middle-class childhood and a public school education." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-had-an-edinburgh-middle-class-childhood-and-a-94997/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.



