In this edition, we begin a new occasional feature, where we explore a classic text that had a major impact both at the time it was published, and since. Alf Wilkinson discusses a book first published in 1913, and still in print, and explains why he thinks it is as relevant today as when it was published.

In 1908 the Fabian Women's Group was set up, partly as a response to the women's suffrage movement, but also as a response to the agitation about poverty and old age.

From 1909 to 1913 they carried out a detailed study in Lambeth, targeting a relatively small group of pregnant women and women with young families, not among the poorest of the poor, but those whose men were in regular employment, in jobs such as policemen, dustmen and bus conductors, where they earned from 18 shillings to 24 shillings a week. The aim was to explore infant mortality. They expected to find feckless families, money wasted on beer and ‘luxuries' instead of being spent on necessities...