Robert Tressell was the pseudonym of Robert Noonan, house-painter and sign-writer, who was born in Dublin in 1870 and died in Liverpool in 1911. He was buried in a pauper’s grave.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was his only book and it was written while he lived in Hastings - “Mugsborough” in the novel.  First published in abbreviated form in April 1914, the novel has challenged, entertained and inspired countless readers. Robert Noonan was a passionate socialist and his scathing denunciation of apathy and hypocrisy, of injustice and inequality, is still relevant today.