Terrible photo, great book

This is my current read. Only a few days to go until book club, but I can't stop reading this to start the book the group has chosen.

Published in 1933 and never out of print since, the book was written by the out-of-work Greenwood as he tramped the streets of the North West in search of employment. Harry Hard castle, the young protagonist, lives at home in squalor in Salford. On leaving school, he chooses to work as an indentured labourer at the local engineering works, Marlowe's. Part way through his seven year apprenticeship, it dawns on him that the much-vaunted secrets of the trade don't amount to very much, and that manual labour is being replaced by machines. A life on the Dole awaits unless he can find an alternative....

I haven't finished yet, but I know that a film was made, using the same title, in the late 1940s. It is available on YouTube in its entirety.

CleanSteve gave his Sri Lanka talk and presentation to our social group today. It went down well, and there was a great turn out. Phew! Afterwards I went climbing in Gloucester with Lea Anne. Combined with nursery in the morning, this made for a rather tiring day.