In 1933 Priestley toured England from Southampton to Newcastle and then back to London down the East Coast. His account of the country, four years into the Depression, was published the following year.
There are signs of the industrial collapse everywhere he goes but most calamitously, of course, in the North, which had been industrialised more intensively than anywhere else. A Northerner himself, Priestley naturally takes this personally, and his descriptions of deserted shipyards and abandoned factories is at times harrowing. What prevents the book becoming an ordeal is the way Priestley seeks out the positive - the charitable settlements in towns large and small which give the unemployed a way of occupying their time and expressing themselves, often through choirs and theatrical productions. Priestley, again, was a great man of the theatre.
The English Journey should be a set book for Sixth Formers but never will be because Priestley makes no bones about who is responsible for the collapse. The same people who, even as I write, are gleefully trashing the British economy, slashing social support to fund tax cuts for the extremely rich, few of whom live in England any more.
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