Tressell

The real story of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Dave Harker, Zed Books, paperback, 282 pages, £12.99

This is a warts and all view of the socialist standard, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, by Robert Tressell (Noonan), that will send you back to the bookshelf for another read of the original "working class novel".

"RTP", as Dave Harker calls it, has sold over a million copies since it first appeared in 1914.

But as Harker points out, it's also "a very odd book".

Impoverished artisan painter Frank Owen struggles to raise his voice against the mean-spirited capitalism of Mugsborough while railing against "stupidity" all around him.

Harker weaves its account of the book's publication, at first in a heavily edited form, into a history of the British left from the SDF and early Communist Party right through to New Labour.

RTP has been criticised for its pessimism and for "sticking it to the workers". Yet as Harker's narrative proves again and again, it is prized most by its working class readership, and valued for its truthfulness.