Received as a BookMooch.

Love on the Dole centres on the Hardcastle family and their neighbours in Hanky Park,a poor part of Salford. Mr Hardcastle, a miner, Mrs Hardcastle a housewife and their children Harry and Sally along with their neighbours represent a working-class economy which was always fragile and was further damaged during the 1930's as a consequences of the Great Depression.

Although this is a novel that is set in a very specific time in history when the British and the world economy was under considerable strain I believe that its central story still resonates in Britain today. Well paid working class jobs particularly in manufacturing appear difficult to find and even those that exist seem to have been undermined by the introduction of zero hours contracts where workers have no idea from one week to the next what they will earn. We also have a situation where good rental properties are becoming ever more unaffordable for working class people meaning that they are compelled to live in substandard accommodation where over time there rental payments far exceed the value of the property. Also we seem to have an establishment (in this case represented by the social security office staff and the Police) seem to be indifferent to the workers plight. I enjoyed the writers style which to me seems to really capture the despair that they all feel but I also enjoyed the social message that it conveyed. Walter Greenwood had been unemployed for three years when he wrote this his first book and it rapidly changed his life from being an unemployed Salford worker to a best-selling author, a remarkable achievement.

Going out as a BookMooch. Enjoy!

received as a bookmooch