Down and Out in Paris and London

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‘Orwell was the great moral force of his age’ Spectator

You can live on a shilling a day in Paris if you know how. But it is a complicated business.

When he was a struggling writer in his twenties, George Orwell lived as a down-and-out among the poorest members of society. In this early memoir, he recounts shocking experiences working as a penniless dishwasher in Paris, pawning clothes to buy a day’s worth of bread and wine, sleeping in bug-infested bunks, trading survival skills and cigarette butts with fellow tramps, and trudging between London’s workhouse spikes for a few hours’ sleep and tea-and-two-slices.

With sensitivity and compassion, Orwell exposed the hardships of poverty and gave readers an unprecedented look at life lived on the fringes of society. His vivid account is an enduring call to support the world’s most vulnerable people and exemplifies his belief that ‘The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.’

The Authoritative Text. With a new introduction by Kerry Hudson.

*The jacket of this stunning hardback edition features period artwork by Elizabeth Friedlander, one of Europe’s pre-eminent 20th-century graphic designers. Look out for complementjary editions of Orwell’s essential works Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.*An extraordinary and curious book: beautifully phrased, meticulous, honest and funny. George Orwell’s 1933 memoir, and a study of poverty, is a book both rooted in its era and able to transcend it… a book that has inspired countless people to try to understand the personal and political issues at the heart of homelessness – and continues to do so today.—Hannah Price

The white-hot reaction of a sensitive, observant, compassionate young man to poverty’—

Orwell was the great moral force of his age—SpectatorGeorge Orwell (1903–1950) is one of England’s most famous writers and social commentators. He is the author of the classic political satire Animal Farm and the dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is also well known for his essays and journalism, particularly his works covering his travels and his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. His writing is celebrated for its piercing clarity, purpose and wit and his books continue to be bestsellers all over the world.

Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, won the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust First Book Award and was shortlisted for an array of prizes including the Guardian First Book Award and the Sky Arts Award. Thirst, her second novel, won the prestigious Prix Femina étranger. Lowborn, her highly acclaimed first work of non-fiction, was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a Guardian and Spectator Book of the Year and Stylist Book of the Decade. It is followed by Newborn. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.GB

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