‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ is Orwell’s plea for socialism as he highlights the poverty and destitution of the English working class in the north, placing a focus on the coal miner of Wigan. 

Part One opens with Orwell’s recount of staying among the miners and lodgers in Wigan and I felt it would read in a similar way to ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’, starting well but quickly dropping off as it became a slightly more interesting version of Blythe’s ‘Akenfield’, listing of wages, poor housing conditions and statistics of the norths working class. This was illuminating in its exposing of skewed surveys on unemployment and living standards, but generally wasn’t the most exciting read. 

Part Two however was Orwell at his best, as he turns to a more essayist voice and makes a case for socialism as the only solution for the poverty he has spent the first half of ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ laying out. Orwell’s educated background shines through here alongside his socialist ideals which create a really interesting paradox and critical voice, and his exploration of socialism versus the rise of fascism and his fears towards such are exactly what I love about him. The latter half of the book really saved this from being another of Orwell’s works where I was left expecting much better from him.