Dear Readers, as you’re looking at this, on a cold, dark December night, I hope you are able to have a little bit of rest. In other words, I hope you are sitting comfortably, if so, we may begin.
Our book for January the 7th, 2025 and the start of this bold experiment for the bookclub, is the autobiographical Caliban Shrieks by Jack Hilton, originally published in 1935 and recently republished in 2024.
Jack was born in January, 1900 and thirty-five years later this would be the first of what would end up being five total books, as well as five-ish essays.
If you want a copy of the January book or, any of the books for this year, please complete this form:
https://forms.gle/ynGLL6KmKqYvC2QE6
This book would not have been reprinted without the work of Jack Chadwick.
That story, in Mr Chadwick’s own words, of bringing back Jack Hilton’s (pictured) debut work is required reading: https://manchestermill.co.uk/p/he-captured-the-imagination-of-orwell
The last book of those five books that Jack Hilton wrote was English Ribbon, published in 1950. Hilton lived another thirty-three years but did not write again, taking his own life aged eighty-three in 1983.
Most writings that I can find talk about Jack Hilton in relation to George Orwell and how Orwell was influenced by Jack, with their correspondence often being mentioned. There is a certain, unavoidable, dark commentary on the British class system in this, as it is depressingly unsurprising that the privileged Orwell ends up much more culturally present in his writings as an observer of poverty than someone who actually grew up and wrote from the 20th century working-class background.
Nevertheless, the book we do have now, in-front of us, is a testament to these writings having renewed staying power. The story of this republishing reminds us that there is no one definitive literary history or canon.
Each moment can, and should, involve choice when looking back on the past with those different, newer eyes, and deciding what we chose to treasure now, in this moment, not only what was considered sacred before.
Whether we are to see that more in this instance, well, as the write-up linked above notes, Jack Chadwick has the publishing rights and has been given the following mission:
“The proviso was, I do my utmost to breathe new life into Hilton’s accomplishments, all to the benefit of the Working Class Movement Library — a place where the legacies of unsung working-class talents are kept safe, safe from the narrow tastes that have so cleanly cut off generations of working-class people from literature and the arts.“
Additional Listening
Extracts from Original Reviews
“Books like this, which come from genuine workers and present a genuinely working-class outlook, are exceedingly rare and correspondingly important.”
George Orwell – Adelphi (March 1935) [https://thebarbarismofpureculture.co.uk/wp/humorous-courage-and-fearful-realism-george-orwell-on-jack-hilton/]
Extracts from Contemporary Reviews
“And even though it seems to me as much a curio as an authentic classic, it’s good to have it back.”
John Self – The Guardian (February 2024) [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/27/caliban-shrieks-by-jack-hilton-review-lost-voice-of-the-north]
“The style sometimes makes it difficult to follow in places, though the pace is always frenetic, and there is a compulsion to read on.”
Richard Young – The Orwell Society (March 2024) [https://orwellsociety.com/review-caliban-shrieks]
Cardiff Left Bookclub 