Jack Hilton (writer)

Early life Hilton was born in Oldham but lived most of his life in and around Rochdale. Although his mother had many children, only four lived to adulthood. Hilton began working at an early age: at nine he worked before and after school as a "barber's lather boy and later as a grocer's errand boy." At twelve, he worked half time at a cotton mill as a "doffer" – a term used for young boys who replenished the spindles used by the older cotton spinners. He left school at fourteen and worked at various jobs until joining the army at sixteen. During the war he was injured in France, at which point he returned to Rochdale and became a plasterer. He remained a plasterer for the rest of his life and was an active member of the plasterers' union, which he joined in 1924. In June 1922, he married Mary Jane Parrott, a cotton mill worker. Mary continued to work in local cotton mills for the duration of their marriage. File:Stanley Hilton Obituary.tif|thumb|The obituary for Hilton's brother, Stanley, killed at sea in 1941. Hilton is mentioned as a "well known local author." After writing English Ways, Hilton returned to fiction, publishing his second novel, Laugh at Polonius; or Yet, There is Woman in 1942. His youngest brother, Stanley Hilton, died at sea in 1941, when the trawler Arctic Trapper, on which he was a stoker, was attacked by German planes and foundered. After the war, Hilton struggled to get his work published. Nevertheless, he continued writing throughout his life and published short stories and essays in magazines whenever possible. In 1949 he was hired to re-walk the same trip he took for English Ways and report on the "changes and improvements in post-war Labour Britain." Later life Hilton's father, George Hilton, died in 1952, and his wife Mary died on 11 February 1955. He married his second wife, Beatrice Alice Bezzant on 14 July 1956. Neither marriage produced children. Hilton died in Oldham. == Major works ==

Books • Caliban Shrieks (1935) • Champion (1937) • English Ways: A Walk from the Pennines to Epsom Downs in 1939 (1940) • Laugh at Polonius; or Yet, There is Woman (1942) • English Ribbon (1950) Essays • "What Life Means to Me: The Credo of a Proletarian" (in five parts, The Adelphi 1937–8) • "The Plasterer's Life" (in Seven Shifts, edited by Jack Common, 1938) • "Hibernation" (The Adelphi, May 1938) • "Queer Men, Dear Women" (The Adelphi, July 1938) • "Poplar and Whitechapel" (The Adelphi, Feb. 1939) == Reception ==

English Ways was met with generally positive reviews. The Times applauded Hilton's "beautifully evocative descriptions of the country." In The New Statesman, C. E. M. Joad described English Ways as "the most continuously interesting account of modern England that I have read, the best thing of its kind since Rural Rides." The reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement praised Hilton's ability to "see the world...through the eye of the artist as well as that of the artisan," and concluded that "Mr Hilton, with his zest for life, his honesty, humour and his angry outspokenness, has come very near to putting his finger upon the true pulse of England." Relationship to George Orwell Orwell reviewed Caliban Shrieks in The Adelphi in 1935. He praised Hilton for treating his "subject from the inside," providing his readers a "vivid notion of what it feels like to be poor", and accurately portraying the "voices of the innumerable industrial workers whom he typifies." Before travelling north to begin his research for The Road to Wigan Pier, Orwell wrote to Hilton asking for advice and lodging on his trip. Although he was partially responsible for Orwell's visit to Wigan, Hilton was not impressed by the Road to Wigan Pier. In his unpublished autobiography Caliban Boswelling, Hilton criticised the book, claiming that although Orwell "went to Wigan...he might well have stayed away" as he only "wasted money, energy and wrote piffle." Hilton claimed that Orwell "wanted to get at the pith but didn't know how, and failed," and as a result he produced "colour that wasn't worth the paint mixes." He blamed Orwell's failure partially on his inability to blend in with the working-class communities he visited, being a "tall, ex-officer type, Eton, modest, non-hard boozing, non-hard cursing, non-crude gamestering, no locale in the dialect sense." He repeatedly attempted to get Hilton's work published, introducing him to publishers and readers when he could. == Legacy ==

Middlesex Polytechnic History Journal published a special issue on Hilton in 1985. It includes essays by Andy Croft, Dan Charlton, Clive Flea, and others, and contains a sample chapter of Caliban Shrieks. In addition to writing an article for the Middlesex Polytechnic special issue, Andy Croft mentions Hilton in his book Red Letter Days: British Fiction in the 1930s. Hilton also features in a chapter of Working-Class Writing: Theory and Practice. The Review of English Studies has published one article on Hilton and his relationship to George Orwell. More recently, other scholars have tried to find the copyright holder for Hilton's works so they can be republished. Following the discovery of the copyright holder of Hilton's catalogue, Caliban Shrieks was republished in March 2024. == References ==