Skip to content or view screen version

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - By Robert Tressell

Kai Andersen | 30.04.2004 22:03 | Culture | Repression | Social Struggles | Liverpool

Have you read 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' by Robert Tressell? If you have then you'll want to see how faithful this play is to the book. If you're touched by the story then read the book. If you're working class then this story nearly a century old will strike a chord with you.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists By Robert Tressell

Wednesday 5th May - The Casa, Hope Street, Liverpool £3/2
Thursday 6th May - United Services Club, Clevedon Street, Liverpool 8
Friday 7th May - Kensington Fields Community Centre, Hall Lane, Liverpool 7
Saturday 8th May - Unity Theatre, Hope Place, Liverpool £5/4

Doors open 7.30pm
Tickets for Casa and Unity Event Available from Venues.

www.geocities.om/shorefields_drama

COMMENT:
The book on which this play is based is part of the hidden and often lost history of 'us' the British working class.

The book, the story, is the first account written in English of the lives and views of a group of working men, written with realism and passion, not by an outside observer, but by "one of themselves". In the 20th century this was a classic of the Labour movement.

Robert Noonan, who wrote this book under the pen-name of Robert Tressell, was a house-painter of Irish extraction. After various wanderings, he settled in Hastings in 1902, and worked for local builders. In his spare time he wrote "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists". He died of tuberculosis in 1911, in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Three years later, in April, 1914, his book was published by Grant Richards Ltd.

The following quote from the original title page is by the author.
"Being the story of twelve month in, Hell, told by one of the damned, and written down, by Robert Tressell".

What is also little known is Robert Noonan is buried in the cemetry opposite Walton Prison, near the Rice Lane City Farm, a large black tombstone marks his grave.

Kai Andersen
- e-mail: aokai@tiscali.co.uk
- Homepage: http://groups.msn.com/SocialistLabourPartyLiverpool

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

The book is on the MIA

30.04.2004 22:55

The full text of the book is here:

 http://www.marxists.org.uk/archive/tressell/

Should be read by all, it's great stuff!

Chris


Reform or Revolution-The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

19.02.2009 18:02

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Here is a new blog on The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

Jack Grantham
mail e-mail: jackgrantham1@yahoo.ie
- Homepage: http://theraggedtrouseredphilanthropists.blogspot.com/