Working class authors claim the publishing industry is discriminating against them in favour of middle-class, London-based nepotism.

Seventy-eight per cent of people who identify as working class feel their background has adversely affected their career, according to a survey of 1,167 people carried out by The Bookseller magazine.

Respondents said they struggle to afford to do unpaid internships to get their foot in the door, as well as break into London's networking scene to progress in the industry.

A mid-level publisher told The Bookseller: "I have seen colleagues from a working-class background dismissed and replaced by those from upper-middle-class backgrounds, without the post being advertised, presumably on the basis of being a ‘better fit’ for the company."

A bookshop employee added: "I think there is the mentality of a closed-off network of middle-class public schoolboys in the company I work for. You can only progress so far before you hit a glass ceiling."

Kerry Hudson, the award-winning author of Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I really welcome the survey because I think it's finally giving us data and accountability for something that many people have known is a problem for quite a long time.