WCL12: Jack Hilton, Rochdale Caliban, part 1
Working Class History
Working Class History
5.0 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For this episode, we spoke to Jack Chadwick whose literary detective work rescued Hilton from almost total obscurity. We discussed Hilton's life growing up in Rochdale's slums, starting work at nine years old, and his activism in the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. We also talked about how he began writing, how Caliban Shrieks was celebrated within the London literary scene, and his long-term (and complex) relationship to George Orwell.
More information
- Buy Caliban Shrieks from an independent bookshop
- Full show notes including sources, photos, and eventually a full transcript are available on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl12-13-jack-hilton-rochdale-caliban/
- Image: Jack Hilton. Credit: Jack Chadwick.
- Thanks to all our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda, Nick Williams and Old Norm.
- Our theme tune is Bella Ciao, thanks for permission to use it from Dischi del Sole. You can purchase it here or stream it here.
- This episode was edited by Jesse French.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jack Hilton was a plasterer, trade unionist, survivor of World War I, and local activist in |
| 0:05.0 | Lancashire's unemployed workers' movement, who turned to rioting while banned from political |
| 0:09.7 | activity. But despite being celebrated by some of the most respected writers of his generation, |
| 0:15.4 | Hilton and his work faded into obscurity, only to be rediscovered now some 90 years after he was first published. |
| 0:23.4 | This is working class literature. |
| 0:25.6 | At the matina, before we start a quick note a quick note to say that we're only able to continue making these podcasts |
| 0:51.2 | both working class history and working class literature because of the support of our listeners on Patreon. |
| 0:57.3 | If you like what we do and want to help us with our work, join us on patreon.com slash working class history, |
| 1:03.8 | where you can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, discounted books, merch and more. |
| 1:10.9 | For instance, Patreon supporters can listen to both episodes about Jack Hilton now |
| 1:14.8 | and also have exclusive access to a special Patreon-only bonus episode |
| 1:19.1 | where we discuss more passages from Jack Hilton's brilliant novel, Caliban Shrieks. |
| 1:24.4 | Patreon supporters also get access to our two Patreon-only podcast series, |
| 1:28.6 | Radical Reeds and Fireside Chat. |
| 1:31.0 | Link in the show notes. |
| 1:33.0 | In this double episode, we're going to look at the life and work of British |
| 1:36.0 | working class author Jack Hilton, with a particular focus on his 1935 autobiographical novel, |
| 1:42.1 | Caliban Shrieks. |
| 1:43.7 | To do that, we spoke to Jack Chadwick, who chanced upon |
| 1:46.7 | Hilton's novel back in 2021 and through what can only be described as an incredible feat of |
| 1:52.1 | literary detective work, managed to track down some of Hilton's old friends and get his book back |
| 1:57.2 | into print almost 90 years after it was first published. We discussed this incredible story of how Jack got the book back into print almost 90 years after it was first published. We discussed this incredible |
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