A BBC Radio dramatisation of the Robert Tressell novel, first published in 1914.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists follows a house painter’s efforts to find work in the fictional English town of Mugsborough (based on the coastal town of Hastings) to stave off the workhouse for himself, his wife and his son. The novel was a sardonic critique of the way society is organised, with the ‘philanthropists’ being poorly paid workers who continue to help make profits for the owners of businesses.

“We’re all of us philanthropists. Toilin’ and sweatin’ at our noble task of making money for the bosses. Money is the cause of poverty because it’s the device used to rob the workers of the fruits of their labours. We’re The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists!”

Written under the pen name Robert Tressell, Robert Noonan’s semi-autobiographical novel was published posthumously. Born in Dublin in 1870 and settling in Hastings, England in 1901, Noonan was a house painter and sign writer by trade (the inspiration for his pen name). He died penniless in Liverpool from tuberculosis in 1911 and was buried in a pauper’s grave.

An explicitly political work, the novel is now widely regarded as a classic of working-class literature and by 2003 it had sold over a million copies. Noonan’s true identity as author of the novel was not revealed for 40 years after its publication.

Wɾitten bу Robert Noonan as Robert Tressell