You Wouldn't Want to Work in a Victorian Mill

It is 1842 and Britain is the "workshop of the world". Cotton mills rise above the smoky streets of Manchester, their machines clattering day and night. At eleven years old, you are bound to work long hours in one of them. From the workhouse to the spinning room, this gripping second-person narrative plunges readers into the harsh reality of child labour during the Industrial Revolution. You carry heavy cans in the carding room, crawl beneath roaring spinning mules, dodge overseers' straps and try not to choke on cotton dust. When fire strikes the mill and strikes erupt across Lancashire, survival becomes even more uncertain.
Filled with comic illustrations, vivid historical detail and dark humour, this book explores the global cotton trade, urban poverty and the fight for workers' rights. A compelling companion for KS2 studies of Victorian Britain and the Industrial Revolution, it supports independent learning with a glossary and index.