Morocco 2024 Report

30 October – 6 November

Thirteen members of The Orwell Society spent a fabulously rewarding week learning about Eric and Eileen Blair’s experiences in Morocco, where the couple resided in Marrakech from September 1938, until late-March 1939.

Contextually, the period immediately prior to their time in French Morocco was an incredibly challenging one for the Blairs. On the 20^th May 1937, while serving in the POUM militia, Eric Blair (the writer known as George Orwell) was shot through the throat by a fascist sniper at Huesca. Two months later, the couple barely escaped from the rapidly deteriorating political situation in Spain, returning to Wallington during the first week of July 1937. Orwell, thought to be suffering from tuberculosis (although it was eventually diagnosed as Bronchiectasis) was admitted to Preston Hall in March 1938. He was a patient at this sanatorium in Kent for six months before making his escape to drier climes, thus avoiding the deleterious effects of a British winter on his lungs.

Orwell’s trip to Morocco was financed anonymously by another Old-Etonian novelist, L. H. Myers, who gifted – via Max and Dorothy Plowman – £300. Orwell regarded this as a loan and later repaid the money – although Myers was by then dead – after Animal Farm was published. The Orwellian fruits of this period, beside an interesting travel diary and letters home, included the novel Coming Up For Air (1939) and an essay published in New Writing that same year, ‘Marrakech’.

HIGHLIGHTS

Like Orwell, our group was based in Marrakech. We made day trips to Casablanca and into the High Atlas Mountains. There were many highlights, including some fine dining experiences involving lamb and tagines, on our itinerary.

Kevin Carter has been doing extremely good work on this period of Orwell’s life in Morocco and we all benefited enormously from his knowledge and enthusiasm. His ongoing research into the sites we visited deeply impressed the group and was particularly evident with Kevin’s attention to the detail about Villa Simont (where that famous photo of Orwell writing was taken).

Walking around Jemma el Fna, the beating heart of Marrakech, delights every sense. Visiting locations – like the sites of Hotel Majestic, Cine-Palace and Café les Negoçiants – really provides one with a much-better geographical sense of Orwell’s experiences in the lively city. Now closed, the Cine-Palace, where he watched the French ‘propaganda film’ Legion d’Honneur felt particularly authentic.

Exploring the Mellah (Jewish quarter) I noticed photographs of artisans, located outside the synagogue, that looked almost exactly as Orwell described in his essay:

“In the bazaar huge families of Jews, all dressed in the long black robe and little black skull-cap, are working in dark fly-infested booths that look like caves. A carpenter sits cross-legged at a prehistoric lathe, turning chair-legs at lightning speed. He works the lathe with a bow in his right hand and guides the chisel with his left foot, and thanks to a lifetime of sitting in this position his left leg is warped out of shape. At his side his grandson, aged six, is already starting on the simpler parts of the job.”

We journeyed to Taddert, in the High Atlas Mountains where Orwell and Eileen spent a week holidaying on the completion of the draft of Coming Up for Air. After a tasty breakfast of fresh bread and omelette, Richard presented Omar with a plaque recognising the Auberge des Noyers as an Orwellian site!

We all appreciated the excellent organisational work, on all aspects of our trip, from Quentin and Liz Kopp, and Kevin and Sandra Carter. Kevin and Richard Blair’s coordination of appropriate excerpts – from Orwell’s ‘Marrakech’ essay, letters and diary entries – at appropriate points on our itinerary was excellent. I particularly enjoyed the reading at the Jnane el Harti gardens:

“I was feeding one of the gazelles in the public gardens. Gazelles are almost the only animals that look good to eat when they are still alive, in fact, one can hardly look at their hindquarters without thinking of mint sauce. The gazelle I was feeding seemed to know that this thought was in my mind, for though it took the piece of bread I was holding out it obviously did not like me. It nibbled rapidly at the bread, then lowered its head and tried to butt me, then took another nibble and then butted again. Probably its idea was that if it could drive me away the bread would somehow remain hanging in mid-air. An Arab navvy working on the path nearby lowered his heavy hoe and sidled slowly towards us. He looked from the gazelle to the bread and from the bread to the gazelle, with a sort of quiet amazement, as though he had never seen anything quite like this before. Finally he said shyly in French: ‘I could eat some of that bread.’ I tore off a piece and he stowed it gratefully in some secret place under his rags. This man is an employee of the Municipality.”

This was my third trip with the Society – Jura (2018) and Spain (2019) – and the intellectual quality of these experiences, along with the friendly cohesion of such well-led tours is just exceptional! I would highly recommend them to any Orwell enthusiast!

Should you wish to know more about the visit by Orwell Society members to Marrakech, here is the 2024 Morocco Itinerary.