George Orwell (real name Eric Blair, 1903-50) is best known
for two classic works, namely Animal Farm and 1984. However, he wrote a great
deal more than those two books, producing both fiction and social commentary.
His 1937 book “The Road to Wigan Pier” falls into the latter category.
The book is in two parts. Part 1 describes the appalling social
conditions he found on his three-month journey in 1936 in the industrial north
of England (he visited Sheffield and Barnsley as well as Wigan), where mass
unemployment was rife at the time.
Part 2 is a discussion that outlines Orwell’s views on Socialism.
Orwell took the line that the conditions he had seen could be alleviated by
Socialism, so that was a very good reason why the country should become
Socialist.
The existence of Part 2 became a real problem for Orwell in
that his publisher, Victor Gollancz, who had commissioned the project, was
initially reluctant to publish anything other than Part 1, because he believed
that the advocacy of Socialism would prove to be too controversial. However, he
later changed his mind and published both parts, providing his own critical
introduction that commented on what followed.
The Road to Wigan Pier has been criticized on several
fronts, one being that Orwell concentrated on the conditions of working men and
ignored the plight of women in the industrial towns. Another problem was that
he took no account of the attempts at self-improvement that many working-class
men were making.
The title might present a puzzle to some people, in that
piers are features of seaside towns and Wigan – not far from Manchester – is
well inland. The original “Wigan Pier” was a wooden platform from which barges
were loaded with coal on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It had actually been
demolished a few years before Orwell visited the town, but the name had stuck
for the area of warehouses and wharfs and is still in use today. A replacement “pier”
has been built, although the district is now devoted to culture and entertainment
rather than industry.
© John Welford
