Part social reportage, part socialist polemic, The Road to Wigan Pier sets out a hellish vision of a broken Britain before delivering a meditation on how we can create a more egalitarian society.

Having travelled to the industrial north of England on assignment from his editor, Orwell's confronting, stark descriptions of the social injustice, cramped slum housing, squalor, hunger, and growing unemployment he encounters are written with unblinking honesty, anger, and humanity.

The Road to Wigan Pier remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice, and the strive for a fairer society.