“We are living in a world in which nobody is free, in which hardly anybody is secure, in which it is almost impossible to be honest and to remain alive.”

Part reportage, part socialist polemic, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a fierce and biting exposé of working-class life in northern England during the Great Depression. Orwell spent months working and living in slum housing alongside miners, tradesmen and salesmen, and paints an unsentimental portrait of industrial decay and social injustice with raw honesty and fury. The second half of the book is a provocative critique of middle-class attitudes, the British class structure, the north-south divide and the failures of contemporary socialism that examines possible solutions to the issues the first half describes.

Orwell’s blend of empathy, irony, and intellectual rigour makes The Road to Wigan Pier a landmark in political non-fiction.

Born Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell (1903-1950) was a British novelist, essayist, and critic famous for his insightful social and political commentary. His personal engagement with real world issues imbues his work with a sense of social conscience that continues to resonate with listeners, and his two most famous novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, continue to captivate audiences worldwide.