Mugsborough

Mugsborough is a fictional town in the novel "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" by the Irish born writer Robert Noonan, whose nom-de-plume was Robert Tressell.

The main character in the novel is named Owen and is a house painter. The character is largely based on Tressell / Noonan's own life and Mugsborough, where the character lives and works, is based on the southern English town of Hastings where Noonan lived.

Mugsborough is portrayed as a somewhat self-contained town with little specifically linking it to the rest of Britain; Tressell located it geographically at some considerable distance from Hastings. According to his description of the town, included in the novel as an appendix, Mugsborough is "About 200 miles from London. It was built in a verdant valley. To the south, as far as the eye could see, stretched a vast, cultivated plain that extended to the south coast, one hundred miles away".

This description implies that Mugsborough is set well inland; its distance from London would of necessity place it to the west or north. But nothing in the book specifically implies it is not set in southern England.

One reason for assuming Mugsborough is Hastings is Tressell's passing reference to a tourist industry, stating that the town was once a 'favoured resort'. Mugsborough is portrayed as having a well-to-do area as well as a swathe of very poor working people. This indicates the social setting of the book; the central character, Owen, is a convinced socialist horrified at the living and working conditions of himself and the men with whom he works. He cannot understand why they have no interest in politics or why some of them vote for conservative politicians. He tries to teach them about socialism.

"The Ragged Trousered Philantropists" is known to many, especially to fellow housepainters, as "The Painter's Bible".

External links

* [http://www.1066.net/tressell/T_visit.htm The Robert Tressell Society]
* [http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=1905007124 "One of the Damned", written by F.C. Ball] A biography of Robert Tressell

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