Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, the book documents his 'first contact with poverty': sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses, working as a dishwasher in Paris, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain.

Exposing a shocking, previously hidden world to readers, Orwell gave a human face to poverty, and in doing so, found his voice as a great writer.