George Orwell's 1937 non-fiction book The road to Wigan Pier whose first part chronicles his experience among the miners' lives in the Northern part of England with its second part more of an essay approach on Socialism has left me astounded, not only because of the relevance many of the issues raised still resonate today but mostly because of the insightful, detailed, compassionate and direct way in which he addresses them.
I regret not having acknowledged his brilliancy when I was at University, possibly because I was too young to fully understand the context and strength of his words, though I recognise it is never too late to further explore what one wasn't able to at a younger age.
" A searing account of George Orwell's experiences of workingclass life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, slum housing, mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity."
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