EVENT: The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists in the Working Class Movement Library

Robert Tressell, author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, the world-famous novel about working class life and struggles, died on 3 February 1911. His book has been published well over 150 times in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Japan, and sections have been translated into Swedish, Chinese and Urdu, and currently there are several English editions in print. RTP has sold an unknown number of millions of copies.

Manchester Trades Union Council has organised an exhibition at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford to celebrate Tressell's life and work. It includes many documents from The Robert Tressell Family Papers, courtesy of the curator, Mr Reg Johnson, whose late wife, Joan, was the granddaughter of the author. This is a unique opportunity to see this fascinating material.

The Tressell Centenary Exhibition is open at the Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford, M5 4WX, between 1.00pm and 5.00pm, Wednesdays to Fridays, until 10 March. To arrange a visit please contact the Archivist, Lynette Cawthra on email or 0161 736 3601.

Dave Harker, author of Tressell: the real story of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, is willing to give guided tours of the exhibition, and to speak to groups of ten or more from union branches, trades councils and other community groups and organisations at WCML, or elsewhere, by arrangement. Contact him here

The TUC History Online website includes a digitised copy of the original manuscript of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, and A Working Bibliography relating to Robert Tressell and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists based on The Robert Tressell Family Papers' in 'Acknowledgments and Resources'.

* Has your union branch elected a delegate to your nearest trades union council? If not, the addresses can be found at here

* Has your branch supported the Working Class Movement Library? If not, why not take a look at its website - and raise the issue in your branch