Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Politics, Protest & Class
“I was a Communist and I hope a revolutionary” (107-108) Hymie Fagan was a British Communist, who had devoted himself to the …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Reading & Writing
“I had developed from early age an insatiable thirst for reading” (16) Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Jeffery Farnol and Talbot Baines Reed …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Purpose & Audience
“I wanted to write” (52) reveals Hymie Fagan. Quite simply we know his purpose. His memoir titled, ‘An Autobiography’ holds no significance, …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Researching Writing Lives
In the beginning of my research for Writing Lives it was my priority to grasp an understanding of the British working-classes. I …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Habits, Culture & Beliefs
Where habits, cultures and beliefs were concerned, Hymie Fagan’s childhood was rigidly Jewish. The ‘cockney urchin’ (29) grew up in the district …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Life & Labour
As a twentieth century writer, Hymie Fagan writes about a period in which the nature of employment had changed since the nineteenth …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): War, Memory & Life Writing
“Chauvinism flourished” (39) Hymie Fagan lived through the First and Second World War. He remembers the First World War spreading “huge waves …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Education & Schooling
“It was not education for living, but for work” (32) explains Hymie Fagan about his education at the Westborough Road Boys School. …
Hymie Fagan (1903-1988): Home & Family
The importance of the Home and Family in a working-class environment was crucial to financial stability and survival. Essentially, the male breadwinner, …
