On Friday July 21st, 2017, members of the Orwell Society, in two parties, visited University College London to see part of the Orwell Archive. OS Secretary Neil Smith thanks archivist Gill Furlong for allowing and organising this visit, and thanks her staff who curated each desk display. Long-time Orwell Society member David Harding took these…Read more From the Orwell Archive, July 2017
Some confusion over Miss Blandish
In 1997 Orwell Society member L J Hurst wrote the letter below to Geoff Bradley, the editor of specialist magazine CADS: Crime and Detective Stories. Thanks to book searches by Jamie Sturgeon and Ralph Spurrier I now have the three editions of James Hadley Chase's No Orchids For Miss Blandish. Three? you ask, but…Read more Some confusion over Miss Blandish
Cricket as a metaphor for sexual equality
In different parts of the UK women seem to have been debarred from working as teachers once they married, in some parts they could continue. Wherever they worked they were paid less than men for the same degree of teaching. In fact, equality was delayed, and one commentator condemned the machinations consequent on it. On…Read more Cricket as a metaphor for sexual equality
George Orwell… in the land of Satyagraha
Bishwajeet Mookherjee explains the background to his film, which is available on Youtube:- "2017 is being celebrated as the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha movement. In 1917, Gandhi had arrived at Motihari to protest against the exploitation faced by the Indigo farmers. Here he launched the first Satyagraha movement on Indian soil. But Motihari…Read more George Orwell… in the land of Satyagraha
‘1984’ at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre
Opening Night of '1984' at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre My Two Cents by Carol Biederstadt It may have taken 68 years, but George Orwell finally made it to the big stage of Broadway when Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s 1984 opened at New York’s Hudson Theatre on June 22nd. Premiering in the UK in…Read more ‘1984’ at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre
Barcelona 2017 July 5/6 Dia Orwell
The events of Dia Orwell (Orwell Day) 2017 have been announced, taking place this year on July 5th and July 6th. The main event on July 5th is speaker Timothy Garton Ash. On July 6th there is a debate between Antonio Monegal and Manel Ollé on dystopia as a fiction. Dia Orwell, organised by Miquel…Read more Barcelona 2017 July 5/6 Dia Orwell
Cologne, Brittain, Orwell, Recalled
Michael Bully's recent post on his World War 2 poetry blog, recalls both a poetic response to the hellish visions of area bombing, and to the contention between Vera Brittain and George Orwell over that strategy. Michael Bully refers to Richard Westward's article 'Vera Brittain versus George Orwell', originally published in Tribune and now available…Read more Cologne, Brittain, Orwell, Recalled
