This is Orwell's record of a period in the late Twenties when he lived among the tramps, dregs and plongeurs of London and Paris. 'It is the white-hot reaction of a sensitive observant, compassionate young man to poverty, injustice and the callousness of the rich ...It offers insights rather than solutions; but always insights have to precede solutions ...No one has ever claimed "Down and Out" is its author's best book, yet many of his admirers describe it as their favourite Orwell.

Its flaws are numerous, but oddly endearing'.