WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome back to part two of our double episode about 2 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.519 the life and literature of working class writer Jack Hilton. 3 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:08.080 If you haven't listened to part one yet, we suggest 4 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:10.119 you go back and listen to that one first. 5 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:25.559 Alamatina happen. Oh, very large child, very large child. Be 6 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.079 large child, child child Alamatina. 7 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:34.320 Before we start, just a quick note to say that 8 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.320 we're only able to continue making these podcasts, both working 9 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.759 Class History and working Class Literature because of the support 10 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:43.399 of our listeners on Patreon. If you like what we 11 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.640 do want to help us with our work, join us 12 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.719 on patreon dot com slash working Class History, where you 13 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:52.640 can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, 14 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.960 discounted books, merch and more. For instance, Patreon supporter has 15 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.119 got early access to both episodes about Jack Hilton and 16 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.880 get exclusive access to a Patreon only bonus episode. They 17 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.319 also get access to two series of Patreon only bonus content, 18 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:11.480 Radical Reads and fireside chat link in the show notes. 19 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.040 As we mentioned in part one, Jack Hilton's experience of 20 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:17.959 long term unemployment was all too common during the Great 21 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:21.959 Depression in Britain. But out of that mass experience of unemployment, 22 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.640 and in part because of the extra time that unemployment 23 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:28.280 allowed came a huge upsurge in writing not just about 24 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:32.560 working class people, but actually by them, recounting their experiences 25 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.359 of both work and worklessness, as well as their hopes 26 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.400 for change. The result was that the nineteen thirties was 27 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.680 an extremely rich decade for working class literature, arguably even 28 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:46.079 the high point in the history of British working class writing. 29 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.280 Caliban Shrieks was very much a part of this literary moment. Here, 30 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:53.519 Jack Chadwick, who we spoke to in Part one and 31 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:57.319 whose tireless efforts brought Caliban Shrieks back into print, reads 32 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.159 a passage from Hilton's text on the effects of hard 33 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:02.560 work on working class minds and bodies. 34 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.519 Most of my mates have uneventually fallen into the way 35 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:09.199 of working for their living. Most of them greet me 36 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.719 and seem proud of Ela. They think they can perform 37 00:02:11.719 --> 00:02:14.680 the function of his favorite recreation of a working class 38 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:17.680 bester than their fellows. I can eat the bloody job 39 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:22.319 is a common expression. Beastly blondes of toil, willing eagers, 40 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:25.520 eaters up of production. To me, they are overdoing it. 41 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:28.319 I think they work too hard and think too little. 42 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:30.520 But they know they are good ones at it, and 43 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:34.159 work never killed anyone, not hard work, even workingmen do 44 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:37.879 at times die. The stimulus to existence is work. It 45 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.560 is life's sole purpose. Work for a decent wage if possible, 46 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:45.280 but work, certainly for regularity, and plenty of it hard. 47 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:48.439 Many are prepared to do it under the odds. Of course, 48 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:51.800 they thought the work game would go on forever. Rationalization 49 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:55.560 has now made their services less important. Thank goodness, poor 50 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.479 cattle full of pomposity when adorned in a new suit 51 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:02.560 of Montague Burtons tailor made. What tailor could meet their 52 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:05.919 slender purses and yet hide the fact that they are toilers? 53 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:10.080 Where is their poise, straightness carriage? Where is their elasticity 54 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:13.280 of heel? What collar could rest unwrinkled when their bony 55 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:16.719 collar bones stick out so generously? How can one's head 56 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.280 sit graciously when the nape of vertebrate aches with jaded exhaustion? 57 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:24.560 Such is the price of eating the bloody job. What 58 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:28.960 mental returation is acceptable to the fatigued body? None? Only 59 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:34.120 the artificial manufactured kind. Horse ology, cardology, rology, and sexology. 60 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.599 Man is the creature of conditions environ. If the bruise 61 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:42.120 is overworked, he generally cannot think what must be done 62 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:44.039 for him by ed Go Wallace win a lot on 63 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:47.000 the bow Street reporter. Of course this is for the good. 64 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:49.639 What is nicer than hewing wood and drawing water to 65 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:51.879 the thoughts of what's going to win the two thirty 66 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:54.719 or yes, he has to hang by the neck until 67 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:58.120 dead possible fortune on the one hand, and glorious better 68 00:03:58.120 --> 00:03:59.080 than he on the other. 69 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:03.439 In this passage, Hilton aims his trademark sarcasm at the 70 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:07.120 cult of hard work under capitalism. But what's interesting here 71 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:10.360 is that he's directing that sarcasm at other working class people, 72 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:14.319 specifically those workers who pride themselves on their hard work, 73 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:17.800 on their ability to, as he says, eat the bloody job. 74 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:22.160 Work is life's sole purpose, jokes Hilton. So work for 75 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:26.279 a decent wage if possible, but work certainly. Hilton is 76 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:29.199 being sarcastic here because his fellow workers belief in hard 77 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:32.000 work for its own sake is actually damaging to themselves, 78 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:34.720 not just because of their bony collar bones or how 79 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:39.879 their vertebrate ache, but because of how overwork exhausts the mind. Again, 80 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.839 Hilton's working class background is so important here because a 81 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.800 passage like this by an upper class writer would risk 82 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:50.839 being condescending. Hilton, meanwhile, strikes a fine balance between concern 83 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.920 for his fellow workers but also frustration with them, precisely 84 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.920 because he shares their experiences. The period that Hilton was 85 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:01.879 writing and saw a huge huge interest in working class writing, 86 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:05.560 as publishers and literary journals increasingly wanted to document the 87 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:08.800 experiences of the Great Depression. This was one of the 88 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:12.639 most productive periods in British working class literary history. So 89 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:14.959 there are far too many authors and novels from this 90 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.720 period to mention here, but two of the most famous 91 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:20.519 working class novels from the nineteen thirties were Love on 92 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:23.720 the Doll and Means test Man. Love on the Doll 93 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.800 depicts the effects of unemployment on a young working class 94 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.519 couple in depression hit Northwest England. It was probably the 95 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:34.120 most successful working class novel from the period, being reissued 96 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.519 ten times between nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty seven. 97 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:40.560 On the other hand, Means test Man was written by 98 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:44.120 outer work Derbyshire coal miner Walter Brierley and follows an 99 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:47.000 unemployed miner and his wife in the week leading up 100 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.240 to their invasive means test inspection. We go into a 101 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:52.399 bit more detail about the means test and how it 102 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.360 worked in Part one. Both Love and The Doll and 103 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:58.319 Means test Man are what's known as realist novels in 104 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:01.680 that they attempt to depict reality quote unquote as it is, 105 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:05.680 making sure to accurately describe the details of the external world, 106 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:09.720 what the characters look and sound like, etc. But perhaps 107 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.519 because of its origin as Hilton substitute for speech writing, 108 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:16.279 which we discussed in Part one, Caliban Shrieks is very 109 00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:17.879 different from both these novels. 110 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:22.560 Really with you other sort of quite well known working 111 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:26.360 class texts from this period, like Lavoma Dol and Meancess Man. 112 00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:30.399 He was so so so removed from the styles of 113 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:33.800 these texts and the sort of way they're structured. The 114 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:35.639 fact that he never set out to be a writer 115 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.839 meant that he wasn't oblivious to how these texts were 116 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:44.720 being written, but he just didn't care because he wasn't 117 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:47.199 writing to fit into any mold. He wasn't make You know, 118 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:49.240 even if you're not conscious of it, if you're trying 119 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.160 to write something with the idea of it getting published 120 00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:55.360 and read, even if you're not conscious of the fact 121 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:56.920 that you're doing this, you are still going to be 122 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.680 writing it with these norms in mind. So like Walter 123 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:04.120 Greenwood's Love on the Door would have been written with 124 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:06.839 the idea of it having the kind of structure that 125 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:10.319 it really ended up having, even if Greenwood wasn't exactly 126 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:12.319 like I'm going to write this and it's going to 127 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.079 tick all these boxes or whatever. Hilton just did not 128 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:17.920 have any kind of sense of needing to tick off 129 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:22.439 certain rules of what constitutes a good piece of prose 130 00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:25.920 when he was writing his own masterpiece. And I think 131 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.000 because of the rough draft of Caliban, Shrieks and what 132 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.240 would become colorb and Streaks made it to listenerary people 133 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.360 and publishes before Hilton even knew that he could publish it, 134 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:38.399 it meant that they then encouraged him to keep going 135 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:42.120 with his eccentricities and the things that defined his debut 136 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:47.519 novel as completely uncategorizable. So I think that the main 137 00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:50.680 point is that there's just absolutely there's just nothing to 138 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:54.360 compare Hilton too, or if there is, I think there 139 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:58.319 probably is, you know, but it's completely buried and completely 140 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:00.399 forgotten and lost. I mean, I wonder how any other 141 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:04.959 private journals remained private journals from this period and from 142 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:10.439 afterwards and from before. You know, there's probably scores of 143 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.199 them that just never had for good luck to have 144 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.360 the sort of a fluke exposure at Hilton had, and 145 00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:18.720 maybe the only text would ever have any kind of 146 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:22.639 similarity tiltings of those ones people's private diaries and journals. 147 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:26.079 He wasn't writing to be read. He just didn't care. 148 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:28.360 And by the time but his writing had been discovered 149 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.360 the fact that it was so form less or he 150 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.840 had its own form, and that this was something that 151 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.440 made it so special to people that you know, got 152 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:40.279 the hands on it, and the encouragement from these people 153 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:44.480 was then emphasizing the uniqueness of Hilton's pros. So Hilton 154 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:48.759 never had to really fit inside any of the uh, 155 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:52.159 you know, the accepted rules of writing, and he was, 156 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:54.320 before he even knew it, he was being celebrated for 157 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.600 flouting these rules. I certainly, I think, you know, his 158 00:08:57.759 --> 00:08:59.360 editors would have had a hard time because although you know, 159 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.440 he taught himself to write in the face and it's 160 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:04.840 unduskly the case for his pros at that point would 161 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:09.080 have been probably quite hard to read in the sense 162 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:10.759 that it would have been if you read some of 163 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:14.120 his letters and stuff correspondence, even from the late thirties, 164 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:18.159 it's sort of like its punctuation and spelling and stuff. 165 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.360 It's not it's like you can understand it, but it's 166 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:25.879 far more it's vernacular Lancastrian, and I think his editors 167 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:28.519 tried to keep as much of it as possible, but 168 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:30.360 still had to sort of put a bit of a 169 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:31.600 stret jacket on his writing. 170 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:35.120 However, Hilton was not always happy to receive this kind 171 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:38.360 of straight jacket from his editors. A few years after 172 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.679 Caliban Shrieks was published, one of Hilton's stories was due 173 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:44.559 to appear in the literary journal New Writing, but he 174 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:46.639 pulled it when he found out he'd gotten a book 175 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:49.840 deal elsewhere. In a letter to friend and fellow working 176 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:53.120 class author Jack Common, Hilton explained that he didn't want 177 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.600 what he referred to as the New Writing editors amendments 178 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:59.639 and cuttings. Quote he takes the bloody life out of 179 00:09:59.639 --> 00:10:02.720 a job. These parts of university boys with a flairy 180 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.960 flair for lit in the worst form are too dictatorially important. 181 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.879 End quote. In another letter to Common, Hilton explains how 182 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.440 he was determined to quote break through the independence of 183 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:18.360 this lot of little big men, these silver spoon progressive editors. 184 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:19.279 End quote. 185 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:21.679 I don't want anyone to get the impression from what 186 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:25.440 I've said that Hilton didn't know what he should be 187 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.679 doing with Caliban Shrieks, because you know, like I say, 188 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:32.840 he did read hundreds and hundreds of novels from the 189 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:37.759 English canon, and including like modernist texts like Lawrences, Sons 190 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.159 and love It. He'd read it all, and so you know, 191 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:41.799 he would have had an idea of what a novel 192 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.480 should have been in the eyes of the people that 193 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:49.000 over time held the purse strings that publishes. But so 194 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.759 many people, even critics nowadays, responding to Caliban Shrieks, have 195 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:58.000 this tendency to view what Hilton does as being just 196 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:03.399 either completely acts or just not giving him the credit. 197 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:05.960 But it's due for the effects. But his book has 198 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.720 it's almost like, oh, it's just a it's just a 199 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.279 happy accident that he has. It's this stirring effect and 200 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.519 that he takes you on this emotional journey. 201 00:11:14.279 --> 00:11:16.639 Indeed, Hilton was well acquainted with the works of the 202 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.960 literary canon, not to mention it's various techniques and motives, 203 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:22.799 as shown in this next passage that Jack is about 204 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:23.399 to read out. 205 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.679 The lily painted descriptions of nature by an artist in 206 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.720 the throes of hypnotic rapture is but the expression of 207 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:34.879 the dualism of being well fed and ideally imaginative. The Grecians, 208 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.679 with their culture, belong to the well fed minority, while 209 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:40.840 their slave brethren are more or less inexpressive. So it 210 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.360 is that we paint pictures according to our stage of evolution. 211 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:47.080 Well fedness is the objective stimulus for the nice abstract 212 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:50.279 words or canvas painting. A hungry man has a hungry 213 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:53.120 outlook and little or no interest in the octanmbulist wall 214 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.480 gatherings of a nature devotee who raves away. You know 215 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.080 how a sky of silk and blues stuck ord with 216 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:02.600 the golden riplets, sunny tints above hills of green brown 217 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:06.679 majesty overmook of metaphor how U kid for soft high 218 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:10.639 falutin hungering shop assistance with such stuff and send them 219 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:13.159 on their Sunday hikes with those back to nature. Rook's 220 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.679 acts to the hobover sky is hardly ever noticed unless 221 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:19.360 it is to be seen whether it offers mildness or 222 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:24.000 storm pleasant scenery is totally ignored. Only nature, in differambic 223 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:27.320 humor is worthy of concern, and only because of its 224 00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:30.960 possibility of discomfort. The miles are long and reary, They 225 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.360 lead uninterestingly from one town to another. Man must have 226 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:37.440 some purpose walking from one town to another is the tramps. 227 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.360 There's a biting cynicism here which seems aimed at the 228 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:46.080 writings of romantic nature poetry or Victorian landscape painters, which 229 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:50.679 he calls noctanbulist wall gatherings, that is, the pointless daydreams 230 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.600 of a sleepwalker. Basically, Hill unmocks their descriptions of silken 231 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.840 blue skies and stockered sunny tints, saying that they have 232 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:00.799 no interest to the hobo, which he'll was for about 233 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.519 a decade. As we discussed in Part one, the hobo's 234 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.120 relationship to nature and the sky is entirely practical. Will 235 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:10.360 it rain? Will I be able to walk for miles 236 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:14.360 or sleep outside comfortably? In stark contrast to the scenes 237 00:13:14.399 --> 00:13:17.519 of nature poets or painters. Then, Hilton writes that the 238 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:21.600 hoboes paths are long and weary and lead uninterestingly from 239 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:25.720 one town to another. But this contrast is not necessarily 240 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:29.480 a total rejection of the literary canon. As mentioned previously, 241 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:33.080 Hilton frequently quotes Shakespeare in his novel, and in this 242 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:36.799 passage itself, he even drops little mentions of the ancient Greeks, 243 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:39.960 like his comments about Grecian culture belonging to a well 244 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.679 fed minority and nature's dithrambic humor, with the dithorm being 245 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:47.919 an ancient Greek form of choral song or poem. So 246 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:50.440 while it might seem at first that Hilton's point is 247 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:52.919 that literary tradition is of no interest to the poor, 248 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:56.200 on closer inspection, it's more that the conditions of the 249 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.840 poor detach them from literary tradition. Hilton's mockera tradition, while 250 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:03.440 drawing on parts of it, can be reared as another 251 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.519 example of his attempt to seize it for the working class. 252 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:10.679 As much as it's a comment about bourgeois literature, it's 253 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:13.440 also a comment about what society does both to the 254 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:16.480 poor and to culture, and how that might be different 255 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:20.559 if only everyone was well fed. The success of Caliban 256 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:23.679 Shrieks opened up new opportunities for Jack hillan. 257 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:28.919 After Caliban Shrieks was met with critical acclaim and you know, 258 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:32.360 favorable reviews from the likes of All Well and Order 259 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:35.879 and the rest of the source of moderness circle around Fidelphi. 260 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:40.559 It gave Hilton this confidence to pursue writing, even though 261 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:42.799 he'd never in his entire life thought that he could 262 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.799 one day do this. He never thought of himself as 263 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:50.039 ever having the ability to make money from his expression. 264 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:52.799 He'd only ever thought of his expression as being potentially 265 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:55.799 useful in getting a better quality of life for his class. 266 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:58.919 But he took the opportunity presented by the success of 267 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:04.320 Calaban Shrieks to go and study at Ruskin College. And 268 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.799 he studied there, And I'd not be able to find 269 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:09.000 it exactly what he studied, but it would have been, 270 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:16.679 I think, quite an all encompassing course, maybe evolving politics, economics, literature. 271 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:20.200 Ruskin College was set up in eighteen ninety nine with 272 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:23.759 the aim of providing education to the working classes. The 273 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:27.919 college received funding from trade unions and sympathetic wealthy benefactors, 274 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:31.240 and provided working people with the opportunity to do long 275 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:35.120 distance and evening courses. However, its main function was as 276 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:38.039 a residential college where working class people could live and 277 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:42.039 study for a minimal price, with many attending on scholarships. 278 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:45.919 Over the next few years, Hilton would publish two more novels, 279 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.639 Champion in nineteen thirty eight and Laugh at Polonius in 280 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:50.559 nineteen forty two. 281 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:55.399 Both of these have fantastically written demonstrations for his ability 282 00:15:55.399 --> 00:16:00.200 to write a very neat novel that gets across working 283 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:04.600 class life in a really powerful way, but they weren't really, 284 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:06.799 I don't think, the kind of things that he wanted 285 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:09.480 to write. And by this point there was just this 286 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:14.840 general turn away from working class writers on the part 287 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:18.279 of publishing houses, and it became more and more of 288 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.000 an uphill struggle. And it had always been steep, it 289 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:24.440 became almost vertical struggle to get publishers to pay any 290 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:28.240 mind to people like Hilton, even though he did have 291 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:33.440 the assistance of people with big profiles, of more respected 292 00:16:33.879 --> 00:16:36.559 writers like Orwell. And in the case of Orwell, he 293 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:40.879 received a lot of help, particularly into the forties, and 294 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:44.000 this help was I think, really it's quite fair to 295 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.399 say that Orwell gave more support and more concrete help 296 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:51.399 to Jack Hilton than he gave to any other writer 297 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:54.879 in his life. And this, you know, it took the 298 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:58.600 shape of in the I think nineteen forty five the 299 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.039 two after making their correspondence because of the war, because 300 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.720 of Orwell's illness, is just in general, because of you know, 301 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:08.119 we'd both been busy with other things. That Hilton had 302 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.480 been doing something for the war effort, I think working 303 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.799 in you to put out fires. They got back in 304 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:17.400 touch with each other, and Hilton asked Llwell for help 305 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:20.079 with moving forward with the kinds of things he wanted 306 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:23.240 to write, and all Well not only putting a good 307 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:27.799 word for Hilton with his publisher at Jonathan Cape, but 308 00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:31.799 he invited Hilton to come and take tea with him 309 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.799 in his Latin Islington, which was incredibly rare. Or Well 310 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.359 did this with only might be like less than a 311 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.920 handful of other people, you know, inviting around for tea 312 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.279 and ren rental publim. He was a very guarded private man, 313 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:47.519 and so was Jack Hilton. I'm really intrigued by what 314 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:50.240 the dynamic between Orwell and Hilton would have been like. 315 00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:54.119 I think because Orwell was a listener as well. I 316 00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:58.839 think it was really unusual because with Hilton, Orwell was 317 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:01.720 in the position of actually having talk, which is enough 318 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:04.880 really quick thing about their relationship with it from the 319 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:07.279 accounts of their meetings, I think both of them sort 320 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.279 of had to sort of talk more than either were 321 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:12.119 used to with each other, because I Fee would have 322 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:16.440 been silenced and black Pudding theilibscot Or. I went to 323 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:21.319 support Hilton, a really remarkable he even you know, often 324 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:25.119 negotiating on his behalf with Jonathan Cape. He even came 325 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:28.640 with Hilton to meet the bearer of bad news from 326 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:32.000 the publisher in which you know, Hilton found out that 327 00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:34.720 he wouldn't be commissioned to write the kinds of books 328 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:36.000 but he really wanted to write. 329 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:39.880 Indeed, All would arranged a dinner for Hilton with Veronica Wedgwood, 330 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:42.880 a reader for the publisher Jonathan Cape, who had already 331 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:46.359 published some of Hilton's work. All Well in Hilton's hope 332 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:48.640 was that Wedgwood might be able to secure a three 333 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.240 book contract for Hilton, which would give him the kind 334 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:54.279 of longer term financial stability to be able to leave 335 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:58.279 his plastering job and pursue a career in writing. However, 336 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:01.799 as Jack mentioned, the tide was to against working class literature, 337 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:05.279 with Wedgewood herself writing an internal memo at Jonathan Cape 338 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:09.559 saying that quote, the Proletarian novel, in my opinion, is 339 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:14.480 finished completely end quote. Before this, however, Hill and also 340 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.720 experimented with another literary genre, the travelogue. 341 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.200 One of these sort of other forms of the writing 342 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:23.759 that he sort of thought he could play a lot 343 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.720 with and develop in the same way as he did 344 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.440 with his pros and Caliba tricks. It was sort of 345 00:19:28.519 --> 00:19:31.160 like the form of a travelogue. I think my second 346 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:36.359 favorite of his books is English Ways, is a sort 347 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:40.640 of dare I say, satire or sort of. It takes 348 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.400 the popular format of the travelogue, which is really like 349 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.000 probably like the most sold books of a time, where 350 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:50.559 of these travelogs about like, you know, trips our English countryside, 351 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:55.960 quite quaint narrations of these journeys by upper middle class writers. 352 00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:58.920 And Hilton, you know, took this format and turned it 353 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.119 on its head by using it as a way to 354 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:05.079 talk about different working class difminnities across the country and 355 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:07.400 exploring the people of these communities and the types of 356 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:10.359 people in these certain places. And you know, he was 357 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.359 the only person who wrote a travelog to start in 358 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:16.279 the north of England. All the other start either in 359 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:18.599 London or in places just on the outskirts. 360 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.920 As Jack mentioned, English Ways is fundamentally satirical in tone, 361 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:26.480 but as some have pointed out, Hilton's travelogue seems to 362 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:30.599 be a satire specifically directed at George Orwell. The writer 363 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.519 Andy Kroft argues that English Ways can be read as 364 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.119 an answer to the Road to Wig and Pier, while 365 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:39.160 literary scholar Ben Clark points out that while Hilton doesn't 366 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:42.920 mention all Well by name, he does mention quote a 367 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.519 best seller from a middle class socialist who was at 368 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.480 particular pains to stress the acuteness of his sense of 369 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:52.599 smell and insisted that working men's stank end quote. 370 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:56.400 So he wrote English Ways n First seven, ten years later, 371 00:20:56.519 --> 00:21:00.960 English Ribbon. And they're quite cocky and quite cheeky, and 372 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.319 I think there's more of a sort of humor. There's 373 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:06.799 certainly less bleakness and tragedy in these texts, but they 374 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:10.160 are nonetheless really special for the way that Hilton's found 375 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.200 his voice, and he is the voice of the same 376 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:16.960 Caliban you know of nineteen thirty four, but Caliban after 377 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:21.000 Prosperous Ireland, really Caliban or Once. He's got a full 378 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:25.480 mastery of himself. Really, and it's really terrible that the 379 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:27.839 publishers didn't jump on these books and really back them 380 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:31.119 in a way that would have got Hilton a proper 381 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:36.440 lifelong literary career, especially because after the refusal to give 382 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:38.680 him a kind of contract would guarantee him a good 383 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:42.599 quality of life and writing. After that refusal, he sort 384 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:45.039 of gave up, and within five years he's sort of 385 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:46.880 after English Ribbon. He sort of just gave up on 386 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:49.480 the idea of being a full time writer because he 387 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.920 realized that to do it, to sort of get those 388 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:55.920 kinds of contracts where he wouldn't have to go begging 389 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:58.720 back after writing each book, where he'd have the sort 390 00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:01.440 of guarantee of stable work, to do that, he'd have 391 00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:06.160 to really censor himself in a way, the garbling effects 392 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:09.200 of mortgage respectability. He would have to really sort of 393 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:12.640 change his tone and write differently, and he never wanted 394 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.839 to do that. His voice and its routiness. In his 395 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:20.599 status as a manual politarian, it's a worker from Rochdale, 396 00:22:20.599 --> 00:22:22.680 from a north so far outside of London. It was 397 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.519 more important to him to keep that than to be 398 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.759 paid for writing more. I guess the word is tasteful, 399 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:33.640 more tasteful as an essential more of works that were 400 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:35.559 more sort of in keeping with the taste for people 401 00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:39.079