CHILDREN OF THE POOR

Two books published in 1933 may give the key to the market for this:- Pat O'Mara's THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A LIVERPOOL IRISH SLUMMY and in lesser degree George Orwell's DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON. This is more emphatically an indictment of our social system than either of the other books, in that it places at the gates of society itself the responsibility for causes of crime, poverty, degradation. The autobiography of a lad who grew up in the worst slums of a New Zealand city -- and an arresting, if sordid, human document.