Arthur Morrison

A Child of the Jago Annotated Arthur Morrison

'The original of the Jago has, it is admitted, ceased to exist. But I will make bold to say that as described by Mr Morrison, it never did exist.' So wrote critic Henry Duff Traill in his review of Arthur Morrison's novel A Child of the Jago, in the January 1897 edition of the Fortnightly Review. 'The Jago' of Morrison's title was the scarcely disguised 'Old Nichol' slum, which stood, until the mid-1890s, just behind Shoreditch High Street, on its eastern side. Published in November 1896, A Child of the Jago caused an instant furore.