Caliban Shrieks

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This is the autobiography of an unemployed Lancashire working-man now aged thirty-five. In portraying his own life and his reflections upon it he has described a case which is more broadly typical than those who only know the unemployed as statistics will easily realise. Mr. Hilton, of course, is exceptional in that he has broken through the formidable barriers between experience and the recording of that experience on paper (and they are formidable indeed to those whose schooldays end at fourteen). But all over Great Britain, in the devastated industrial regions, there are men of the same brave and generous temper, who express it in the like rich and vigorous speech. Men who know that it is Man's mismanagement and not Nature's law that has thrust the role of Caliban upon them. They are disillusioned, but seldom cynical, industry cannot use them. But society needs them. And they know - better than most - what the real needs of Society are. They are worth listening to. Born into a large working-class family, Hilton grew up in a slum before starting work in a cotton mill at the age of eleven. He fought in the First World War before a period of several years as a vagabond. Upon settling in Rochdale in the latter half of the 1920s, he took up odd jobs in the building trade. During the Great Depression he began to organise for the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. After a protest in 1932 for which he was imprisoned in Strangeways, Hilton was barred by a magistrate from involvement in the organisation of future protests or political actions with the NUWM. He turned to writing instead, and soon afterwards a tutor of his at the Workers Educational Association stumbled upon a notebook containing drafts by Hilton. The tutor posted the texts to the modernist literary editor John Middleton Murry who invited Hilton to contribute to his magazine, The Adelphi. Hilton's contributions evolved into his debut novel Caliban Shrieks, published in 1935.

Respected poet and academic Dr Ian Patterson, of Queens’ College, Cambridge, said: “Hilton was a terrific, provocative, phenomenally surprising writer – a true iconoclast. Greater Manchester leaders have written to the government calling for an "urgent rethink" of HS2’s Manchester plans. They say the proposal to build a cheaper overground station at Manchester Piccadilly is the wrong solution and could "damage the North for generations”. Andy Burnham said: “This is a huge moment and the decisions that are made now will affect the prospects for people here in the North for hundreds of years to come. A second-class choice for HS2 at Manchester Piccadilly station will be a hammer blow to any prospects of really Levelling Up our country." FOC was born in Cork in 1903 and was later active in the Irish Republican movement. He was imprisoned in Gormanstan. By the 30s and 40s he was part of the Irish literary revival and became director of the Abbey Theatre. He left Ireland in the 50s as a result of government censorship of his work. He settled in the USA and died in 1966. At school, she found herself hiding what she did from her peers. She admits she felt embarrassed and didn’t want to stand out. “I was at that age in my life,” she says. “I was worried they would think I wasn’t girly.” Hilton and his siblings all went to work in the Mills Greater Manchester aged 11, and only one of his sisters lived past 30. The book goes on to describe his peer-pressured enlistment in WWI, the Battle of the Somme, and returning to the UK to process his trauma as a wandering vagrant.

Band on the Wall welcomes Hempress Sativa, a reggae star who is on a tour of the UK. Expect reggae, hip-hop and afrobeat vibes. Starts 7.30pm. Book here.

Before he’d finished his first pint at the Sportsman’s Arms, a woman approached and said she remembered Hilton from his days drinking in the pub in the 70s and 80s, and his best friends at the time Bill and Brian. LH was born in Sally Oak, Birmingham in 1906, the son of a butcher and started work at the age of 15, working variously as designer, tool-maker, labourer and plaster. He also contributed to New Writing, Fact, Left Review and the London Mercury.SB worked in the rag trade and as market trader in London’s Whitechapel district. He became a member of the editorial board of the Left Review and did much to promote the Workers Theatre Movement as well as founding The Rebel Players. From here he began to work professionally in a number of editorial jobs.

Chippy Tuesday at Levenshulme veggie and vegan bistro The Gherkin gives you a free chip butty with every drink. Don’t miss out. Info here . Hilton replied saying Wigan’s miners would be a better focus for Orwell’s book – which he described as ‘piffle’ and ‘a waste of time and money’ when it was published in 1937. Half-time system, how many bow legs have you made? little puny legs shuffling along up hill at early morn, then bearing a doffing box plus a tired body. No wonder the comedians of the day made the Lancashire lad a skit; still it was a tragic one. What a price to pay for prestige; cotton the world and ruin the child! He said: “It was advertised as a novel but when it first appeared in 1935 reviewers didn’t know how to react, although George Orwell recognised Hilton’s considerable literary talent, calling it an ‘autobiography without narrative'." Born in 1901 in Dublin of Irish parents JH was brought up in Liverpool; worked as a stoker aboard ships from the age of 14 and later on the Lancashire railways; fought in WW1 where he was gassed; eventually became a professional writer. He settled in North Wales in the 1930s where he led”the life of a recluse”. His son Liam Hanley says of his father’s work”For me his strength lay in the fact that he was never cruel with his characters, never distanced, never clever. He gave working men and their wives and children a voice -their voice”. JH died in 1985.RD was born in Clydach Vale the son of a grocer. He left Wales in the 20s to pursue a writing career in London. He travelled abroad and was later befriended by D.H. Lawrence. JB was born in 1905 a farm-workers son at Kincardine-on-Forth. He moved to Glasgow after WW1 and became a gate keeper at a shipyard. Became a member of the CPGB in the late 1930s. The success of his first novel encouraged him to take up writing professionally. After serving in the First World War , he became a plasterer and an active member of the Plasterers’ Union. He was also involved in the National Unemployed Workers’ Union during the depression of the 1930s – which led to several run-ins with the police and a few brief stints in jail. As ever, we have a great list of things to do this week including a twilight art class, a visit to a ‘bee corner’ in Salford, and readings and music at Chetham’s Library about a radical reformer.

Z-Arts in Hulme has an interactive exhibition, called Fairytales. It’s a world of play and storytelling for little ones and their grownups. Dates throughout the week, but typically open from 10am. Book here . At the weekend, we published an insightful essay by Mollie about the sacrifices that football demands of young women in Manchester. Mollie spoke to young women who had been considered exciting footballing stars as teenagers, only to drop out of the game prematurely, including Liv, who played for Manchester City Juniors: JC was born in Newcastle in 1903 the son of a railway man. He had various jobs throughout his life including clerk, caretaker, labourer and various stints unemployed. During the 30s he worked on the magazine Adelphi and had many short articles published. It was during this time that he became friendly with George Orwell.Before his death, Hilton used to come round to Mary and Brian’s for tea several times a week, eating with them and their two boys. None of the family had known that he’d ever been a writer, nor did they ever hear much about his tumultuous early life. Hilton died modestly and unacclaimed, and for 80 years his novels have been virtually impossible to get hold of after they went out of print, the ownership of the publishing rights unknown. Throughout Caliban Shrieks he subjects the unearned privileges of the wealthy to prosecutorial diatribes, knowingly delivered in the metre of a Shakespearean Sonnet. These polemics gradually build in strength and sophistication through the novel, with the final chapter as just one long toast-like oration against the class system — modelled on the kinds of speeches he would give as an organiser of the unemployed, the speeches that would eventually put him in chains.