Hell Yeah George Orwell!

Studying George Orwell since 1999. These are the results.

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Even George Orwell’s own friends recognized Benjamin the Donkey (from Animal Farm) as a stand-in for their friend and actually called him “Benjamin” for a short time.

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SUBJECT: GEORGE ORWELL'S SISTERS. I've read Benard Crick's biography of Orwell. In it, he says that (I'm paraphrasing) Orwell's sister, Avril -- for a great deal of his life -- thought that his writing was a waste of time/she couldn't understand the appeal. But, apparently, after his death, she softened, read all of his books, and appreciated him. Crick does not cite any of this. I wondered how he knew this information. Thanks a lot.

I read that as well. I imagine from a series of interviews Avril did, possibly for television but don’t quote me on that. Please excuse the lateness of my reply!

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From a letter from Lady Oxford and the Daily Telegraph, on the subject of war economies. 'Since most London houses are deserted there is little entertaining...in any case, most people have to part with their cooks and live in hotels.' Apparently, noting will ever teach these people that the other 99% of the population exist.

George Orwell

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The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.

George Orwell, Thoughts On the Common Toad (1946)

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After the sort of winters we have had to endure recently, the spring does seem miraculous, because it has become gradually harder and harder to believe that it is actually going to happen. Every February since 1940 I have found myself thinking that this time Winter is going to be permanent.

George Orwell, Some Thoughts On the Common Toad (1946)

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George Orwell: British Cookery | British Council

George Orwell's rejected 1946 essay for the British Council on British cookery

The article that was rejected.

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George Orwell gets apology 70 years after his essay was rejected

The British Council commissioned Orwell to write on food, but then decided it was best not to publish it after years of rationing.

Includes Orwell’s marmalade recipe. 

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George Orwell’s friend Richard Rees painted this of Orwell’s bedroom at Barnhill on the island of Jura. It’s where Orwell finished Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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George Orwell with others he worked at at the BBC during the war. 

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There is a page online that shows the original first paragraph of 1984 and the notes Orwell made that would result in changes. I now can't find the page.

Here you go! Hope that helps!

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Author George Orwell, circa 1946. 

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George Orwell, taken late 1946 by Vernon Richards.

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George Orwell rolling one of his own cigarettes. 

Taken in late 1946 by Vernon Richards.

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Quotes from George Orwell on Socialism, labour movement, Communism and totalitarianism. Why Orwell was a socialist despite hating Soviet Communism.

[hellyeahgeorgeorwell]

So there it was at last, the copy of George Orwell’s notorious list of “crypto-communists” that went into the files of a semisecret department of the Foreign Office on May 4, 1949. It lay before me in a buff folder on the office table of a senior Foreign Office archivist. Despite all the controversy around …

This year marks not only the 70th anniversary of Nineteen Eighty-Four but also the 70th anniversary of George Orwell “naming names”. But it wasn’t a big of a deal as we’ve been led to believe.