A Roof Over Your Head. By Bill Laughton. (The Pilot
Press. 7s. 6d.) THE doldrums of the 'thirties, when millions of men were on the dole, seem a long way behind us, but this book brings them back vividly. Written as a story, but in the first person, it bears strong evidence of transcription from life. It mirrors without self-pity the struggles, heartache, misery and happy moments of a labouring man condemned to see his wife and children suffer the wretchedness of extreme poverty through his inability to secure work. The pub- lisher's note states that Mr. Laughton is. Irish peasant by birth, Lancashire working-class by upbringing, and that he worked as a coal man and lorry driver up to the time he wrote this book. One presumes, therefore, that he has ceased to be a labouring man, and one wonders whether he will write another book detached from the life that gave him the material for this one. If he does, what will the subject be and how will he treat it? That will be the test of his vocation as a writer. In the meantime, it is salutary that one should read this reminder of the miserable 'thirties, -if only to brace' one's determination to help in all possible ways to prevent our falling into a similar state again.
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