In imitation of Jack London, whose writing he admired (particularly "The People of the Abyss"), Blair started to explore the poorer parts of London. On his first outing he set out to Limehouse Causeway, spending his first night in a common lodging house, possibly George Levy's "kip". For a while he "went native" in his own country, dressing like a tramp, adopting the name P.S. Burton and making no concessions to middle-class "mores" and expectations; he recorded his experiences of the low life for use in "The Spike", his first published essay in English, and in the second half of his first book, "Down and Out in Paris and London" (1933).