Mugsborough

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Mugsborough is a fictional town in the novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by the Irish born writer 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 a somewhat self-contained town with little specifically linking it to the rest of Britain and Tressell is careful to locate it well away from Hastings geographically:

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 plane that extended to the south coast, one hundred miles away".

This description shows that Mugsborough is set well inland, and its distance from London would of necessity place it to the west, presumably South Wales. However nothing in the book specifically implies it is not set in Southern England, making the true location somewhat imaginery.

However in the context of the presumed Hastings setting, it should be noted that Tressell does make passing reference to a tourist industry, stating that the town was once a 'favoured resort'. Mugsborough is portrayed as having a well-to-do section as well as a swathe of very poor working people, which indicates the social setting of the book: The central character Owen is a convinced socialist and is horrified at the living and working conditions of himself and the men he works with. 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".

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