WCL13: Jack Hilton, Rochdale Caliban, part 2

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Part 2 of our double episode on working-class author Jack Hilton, with Jack Chadwick whose literary detective work rescued Hilton from almost total obscurity. This part covers his novel Caliban Shrieks in more detail and how it compares to other working-class novels from the same period; his later writing and life, and how his writing career would come to an end (despite George Orwell’s efforts); and, finally, the amazing series of events that led to the rediscovery and republication of Caliban Shrieks.
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More information

Buy Caliban Shrieks from an independent bookshop
Listen to the bonus episode to this double episode, exclusively for our supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wcl-13-1-jack-129501458
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/

Acknowledgements

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	Welcome back to part two of our double episode about the life and literature of working class writer Jack Hilton.
0:06.0	If you haven't listened to part one yet, weow, chow, all the matthina. a quick note to say that we're only able to continue making these podcasts, both working class
0:37.5	history and working class literature, because of the support of our listeners on Patreon.
0:42.6	If you like what we do want to help us with our work, join us on patreon.com slash working
0:47.4	class history, where you can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content,
0:52.8	discounted books, merch, and more. For instance, Patreon support has got early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, discounted books, merch and more. For instance,
0:56.0	Patreon supporters got early access to both episodes about Jack Hilton and get exclusive access to a
1:01.4	Patreon-only bonus episode. They also get access to two series of Patreon-only bonus content,
1:07.6	Radical Reads and Fireside Chat. Link in the show notes. As we mentioned in part
1:13.3	one, Jack Hilton's experience of long-term unemployment was all too common during the Great
1:17.9	Depression in Britain. But out of that mass experience of unemployment, and in part because of the
1:23.2	extra time that unemployment allowed, came a huge upsurge in writing not just about
1:28.1	working-class people but actually by them recounting their experiences of both
1:32.8	work and worklessness as well as their hopes for change the result was that
1:37.3	the 1930s was an extremely rich decade for working-class literature arguably
1:42.2	even the high point in the history of British working
1:45.3	class writing. Caliban Shrieks was very much a part of this literary moment. Here, Jack Chadwick,
1:52.2	who he spoke to in part one and whose tireless efforts brought Calaban Shrieks back into print,
1:57.0	reads a passage from Hilton's text on the effects of hard work on working class minds and bodies.
2:02.6	Most of my mates have uneventfully fallen into the way of working for their living.
2:07.6	Most of them greet me and seem proud of their lot.
2:10.6	They think they can perform the function of his favourite recreation of the working class,
	...

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