Motion: Renewed Interest in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Renewed Interest in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Lodged by Drew Smith Standard Motion 25 supporters

The motion

That the Parliament notes the serialisation of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists audiobook by Martin Chomsky, which is airing on the Sunny Govan Community Radio station each night from 25 January until 30 January 2015, with a two-hour debate on 28 January 2015 with trades unionists and academics as part of the Social Awareness programme with John Beattie; welcomes the recent interest in what it considers the seminal novel by Robert Tressell, which celebrated the centenary of its publication in 2014; further notes that Townsend Productions toured Stephen Lowe’s stage adaptation of the book in 2011, visiting venues across Scotland and the UK, including the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow; highlights that a new book, written by Bryan MacMahon, Robert Tressell, Dubliner: author of "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" was launched in Dublin in March 2014; notes that the book tells the story of the gradual revelation of some of the details of Tressell’s life and the discovery of his manuscript, leading to the novel’s publication in full for the first time in 1955; understands that the novel is set in the fictional town of Mugsborough, based on the southern English coastal town of Hastings, where the author lived and that the original title page of the book carried the subtitle "Being the story of twelve months in Hell, told by one of the damned, and written down by Robert Tressell”; further understands that Tressell completed The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in 1910 but the 1,600-page hand-written manuscript was rejected by the three publishing houses to which it was submitted and that an abridged copy of the novel was only published posthumously in 1914; is encouraged by the renewed interest in the novel, and hopes that it continues to inspire generations to come.

Supporters (25)