Working Class History18 Jun 2025

WCL13: Jack Hilton, Rochdale Caliban, part 2

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.

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