“I can see that you’re going to die laughing, but we genuinely don’t feel like we have a quality of life to sing about,” says James, one of London’s so-called Henrys. Director of a digital strategy company, he is profoundly dissatisfied with his lot. ‘Henry’ stands for High Earner, Not Rich Yet. And London is full of them: people on good salaries who are suddenly struggling. James talks me through the truth about the section of society whose members earn more than £100,000 a year but who barely make ends meet. “The problems facing us are legion,” he says. And mad as it sounds, James has a point. Just 10 years ago a Henry would have been able to live in a nice — or soon to be nice — area, eat at some delicious restaurants, go on smart holidays and might even be able to swing the fees of a kid or two at private school. Not any longer.
