George Orwell
Perhaps the most influential English writer of the 20th century and one of the most important chroniclers of British culture of his generation, George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in Motihari India, was the most English of writers. He wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism.
He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which have sold more than any other 20th-century authors. His account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia (1938), is a classic, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language, and culture.
His work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term ‘Orwellian’ — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms, including Cold War, Big Brother, thought police, Room 101, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.
Here is a wonderful 2003 BBC Television docudrama telling his life story with Chris Langham as Orwell. No surviving sound recordings or video of the real George Orwellhave been found but he, and his ideas, come alive here.
Orwell died on January 21st,1950, 75 years ago today.
The post Ruth Leon recommends… George Orwell: a life in pictures appeared first on Slippedisc.
