George Orwell's first appearance on the wireless was in a scripted discussion of "The Proletarian Author" with Desmond Hawkins. Professor Peter Davison's notes record that this was part of the series ‘The Writer in the Witness-Box’, with this contribution broadcast on the BBC Home Service on the 6th December 1940. The talk was published in…Read more Wireless First
Some Sutherland insights (and errors) * Richard Lance Keeble sniffs out some useful Orwellian insights in the work of the controversial biographer, John Sutherland * John Sutherland’s Orwell’s Nose: A Pathological Biography (London, Reaktion Books, 2016) has proven to be highly controversial. While its focus on ‘smell narratives’ throughout Orwell’s work is both original…Read more Sniffing Out
In 2018 Eton College unveiled a bust of their former student, Eric Blair, who left the school in 1921. He has become famous since as 'George Orwell'. Sarah Warren-Macmillan, college librarian, described the unveiling, and Blair/Orwell's life, in the college magazine. Our thanks to Sarah Warren-Macmillan, Eton College librarian. Uploaded 2nd…Read more Eric Blair at Eton
George Orwell's first novel, Burmese Days, set in the country in which he had been a police officer from 1922 to 1927, was regarded by the book trade as so controversial that it was not published in the UK at first. It was published in the USA in October 1934. Image: Wikipedia After much checking…Read more Reading the Raj
Jura Days Some thoughts on The Orwell Society visit to Jura 8 - 11 June 2018 by Richard Lance Keeble Photographs by Quentin Kopp The Road to Crinan Pier Maryline and I drove up on Thursday night from Lincoln up to Penrith: the massive sky above the Cumbrian Pennines dazzlingly golden…Read more Jura Days 2018
After his time as as bookseller George Orwell wrote his "Bookshop Memories". We asked our friends at Scarthin Books of Cromford how they display books by and about George Orwell. They let us have these photographs. A celebration of Independent Bookshop Week June 16th - 23rd 2018 Some of the books available…Read more Bookshopping Today
Within the London section of Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell described a visit to ‘Romton’: he was 'on the tramp' and his intention was sleeping in a casual ward he had heard about. Recently, Dr Luke Seaber (author of Incognito Social Investigation in British Literature: Certainties in Degradation, an academic exploration of…Read more Romford Re-visited
