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George was the first to take the stairs and enter the basement world of the marginalised by walking through the tradesmans entrance. Brushing through the portals he discovered something hidden from his Etonian archaic land of Gormenghast.

The down and outs in London were the brow beaten and despised, depicted by Charlie Chaplin in his films. Chaplin knew this world from being an inhabitant of the Lambeth workhouse, now turned into luxury flats.

Orwell depicts the everyday humiliations of an outsider existence, the tramp from place to place, the cold nights in the winter coupled against the warm camaraderie and the icy stare of institutional bullying. He illuminates the cultural invisibility of men cast out. These are marked the easy prey for institutional bullies to obtain a few pennies from delivering bread, margarine and tea. He portrays men eager to pay lip service to the sermon in order to receive a bun and some precious warmth. He shows how religion was on the wane in the 1930's when this was written.

The rationale for the decline are the levels of institutional humiliation heaped on the men, the rationale being, not make life too comfortable, otherwise it creates encouragement for all to surrender to the street. The penury, bullying and dependence arises on this philosophical foundation.

What is missing are the psychological undercurrents flowing into the stream of misery. He gently notes his friends bereavement, another man's shell shock but these are left largely unexplored. Instead he plumps for the economic reductionist viewpoint he derides in his later work, need for female company and work. This is where his time and upbringing erects a barrier to understanding.

Working in the homeless field for years, key issues arising are poor early attachment relationships, institutional child abuse, bereavement, marital break up, war trauma, prison release/institutionalisation, mental health issues, alcohol/drug self medication coupled with ongoing violence.

These men need far more than sex with a woman and a job. Men far from coping with relationships and a work because confidence is shattered. This can only be reassembled through achievement but the initial catalyst arises from validation and recognition ie these things exist.

George opened the vistas to understanding the worlds of the homeless, the brotherhood and the thievery, the brow beaten acceptance, the gangs of revenge.

Now there is less deference throughout society and this is reflected amongst the homeless. ABC's, ASBO's, court appearances for begging, shoplifting and stealing rain down upon them. Strangely the local NHS substance use provider where I worked stopped homeless men from accessing detox and rehab claiming it disrupted their 120mls a day do what you want, methadone care plans.

The world has changed in appearance but not in fundamentals as the population has switched off and mires itseld in the lottery and Z factor in its dream factories.

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I've read this book before and still enjoyed it the second time around. Delivery was what I expected.

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This book is Orwell's autobiographical account of life in the Paris slums and amongst London tramps. Do not expect a happy story or happy endings for most of the characters - it will though, give you quite an insight of how poverty works and why it is so hard to shake it, once one falls on hard times.

The book starts with the Paris section and at a time just before the author falls on hard times. While it sounded dire to start off with, the transition in some way makes it much worse very rapidly and soon thereafter while not out for good, the author finds himself in a situation that seems practically impossible to climb out of. The description of the situation and the challenges associated with poverty are some of the most eloquent statements for more tolerance towards the less fortunate in our society.

The London bit points to some differences with Paris (harder to starve but conditions worse otherwise) but presents the same grim picture. There are a couple of chapters in the book, where Orwell tries to make sense out of why these conditions persist and why so little is don to end them. Some readers might find these very communist and be put off by them, on the other hand, Orwell does get some things right - namely the complete lack of understanding of people who have never been poor of what poverty really is like and how difficult it is to climb out of it once one finds oneself there (a message coming out much clearer from the chapters describing the situation than te summary ones analysing it).

This is most certainly not a feelgood book and unlike with the Animal Farm: A Fairy Story or Nineteen Eighty-four there is no (black / hidden) humour to be found here. It is heartrending and at times depressing but it is a book worth reading and I would very much recommend it to people across the political spectrum.

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I have read nearly everything by Orwell but this is by far my favourite!The imagery is quite amazing.The senses are thwarted all the time.I felt in some parts like I could directly smell what he described and could feel the heat in the kitchens word by word.I really enjoyed this book because it takes you away to places you never want to be and when you close the book your safely home again!I also watched the french film "Les Amants du pont neuf" around the same time as I read it and there are many similarities with regards the homeless shelters etc so it would be well worth a watch too.Im actually going to read it again NOW!

Slan go foill!

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I bought this book because, rather than watching mindless drivel on TV on an evening, I thought I'd read a few classics. Having spent a year in Paris I thoroughly enjoyed Orwell's descriptions of the darker side of the 'city of lights'. As the book progresses to London I found the descriptive writing a little repetitive but found that interestingly reflected the mundane repition of the tramps life. It must have taken Orwell some balls to undertake this project but I have taken off a star as I read that when he was living the life of the tramp he was occassionaly nipping back home for the weekend to freshen up! Oh well still a great book and a must read.