Quentin Kopp Welcome

• John Rodden Expresses his concerns about continuing attempts to destroy Orwell’s reputation and pays tribute to recently deceased Ian Willison.
• John Boaler Writes on Orwell’s famous essay “A Hanging” and about other writers who also witnessed a judicial execution.
• Andy Symon Investigates the identity of the unseen drinker in Coming Up for Air
• L.J.Hurst Draws our attention to an early study on modern Newspeak.
• Elsewhere Hurst shows how Orwell was prescient on climate change.
• Alyaksandr Fyaduta A blog written on Orwell by the famous Belarusian politician and academic shortly after his release from prison. Here it appears translated and slightly abridged.
• Masha Karp Writes about her recent research and discovery of the identity of the first translator of Homage to Catalonia
• Tom Miller Offers a fascinating personal insight into Kingsley Amis’s attitude to Orwell.
• Ron Bateman Explores the role railways played in Orwell’s life.

Reviews:

• Ian Bloom Reviews Kevin Carter’s George Orwell in Marrakech
• Jason Crimp Reviews Andy Durgan’s The POUM: Republic, Revolution and Counterrevolution.

Events

• Quentin Kopp Outlines Key Events for 2026

Welcome

• Quentin Kopp

Articles

• • • John Rodden Celebrates the 80th anniversary of the publication of Animal Farm and its enduring relevance as a cautionary classic.
    • Richard Blair Looks back at his father’s creation of Animal Farm and imagines his parents working on it between 1943-1944.
    • Alenka Puhar Pays tribute to Jože Germ whose translation of Animal Farm into Slovenian was broadcast in 1947 by Radio Trst/Trieste.
    • Frank van Splunder Provides a fascinating account of the Khmer version of Animal Farm
    • Matthew Herbert Explores how sexuality in Nineteen Eighty-Four is related to Orwell’s conception of private life
    • G.Alexander Denning Offers a rejoinder to John Rodden’s article on Nineteen Eighty- Four in Journal 24
    • Hassan Akram Explores the famous 1958 satire, The Rise of the Meritocracy, written by the sociologist Michael Young.
    • Leyla Ferrand A short story from our winner of the Dystopian Fiction Award which captures the essence of the Orwellian tradition.
    • L.J. Hurst Uncovers a little-known pamphlet by Kingsley Amis which is structured around an attack on Orwell
    • John Boaler Ponders why Orwell did not set any of his fiction in a boys’ boarding school.

Reviews:

• • • Alissa Valles Reviews Krystyna Wieszczek’s George Orwell and Communist Poland
    • Benedict Cooper Reviews Nathan Waddell’s A Bright Cold Day
    • Trevor Fisher Reviews Oliver Lewis’s travelogue, The Orwell Tour.

Letters to the Editor

Events

• • • Quentin Kopp Outlines Key Events for 2026

• Richard Blair Welcome
• John Rodden Provides a detailed account of the assault on Orwell from the Left.
• Trevor Fisher Offers a timely reflection on the appendices to the dystopian novels of Orwell and Atwood.
• Gavin Brown Considers the continuing relevance Orwell’s work to contemporary political debate and culture.
• Oliver Buxton Reflects on how the writings of Orwell and Fleming provides insights into possible future wars.
• Masha Karp Introduces the Tamizdat project and sheds some light on the first ever translation of Animal Farm.
• Jon Boaler Explains why he feels uncomfortable about one particular episode in Coming Up For Air.
• Les Hurst Delves into Orwell’s use of quotations and also looks into the history of the George Orwell Memorial Prize.

Reviews:

• John Newsinger Provides a detailed account of Tom Buchanan’s book, Spain Mad: British Engagement with the Spanish Civil War.
• Douglas Kerr Reviews Patrick Cockburn’s book Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism.

• Freya Wilkinson Talks to our Deputy Editor about her enthusiasm for Orwell.
• Ian Bloom Explains why some cheeses are more equal than others.

Events

• Quentin Kopp Offers plans for 2025 and a new “Three-Year Plan”.

• Quentin Kopp Welcome
• Alenka Puhar Provides a fascinating account of her translation of Nineteen Eighty-Four into Slovenian, legally published in Yugoslavia in 1967
• John Rodden Explores the importance of the Appendix in Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Glyn Ford Considers the connections between Orwell and members of the Independent Socialist Party (ISP)
• Les Hurst Investigates Orwell’s attitude to social class
• John Boaler Takes a closer look at the generalisations and assumptions made by Orwell in ‘England Your England’.
• John Lethbridge A detailed account of St Cyprian’s School
• Ian Bloom Provides a personal and insightful account on Tosco Fyvel
• Guy Loftus A fascinating account of Dione Venables’ pathway to Orwell
• Lois Bolton A chilling short story from our winner of the Dystopian Fiction Award

Reviews:

• Hassan Akram and Réka Törzsök Two reviews on Sandra Newman’s Julia
• Brian Rubin Reviews an Orwell-inspired book, A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm
• Carol Biederstadt Offers a critical review of a new novel by Paul Theroux, Burma Sahib

The Latest Trip to Spain

• Quentin Kopp Explains why Victor Pardo Lancina is a worthy recipient of the Honorary Life Membership of The Orwell Society
• Bruce Dear and Katharine Farnham-Dear Some personal observations of the unveiling of Orwell’s monument in Huesca

Events

• Quentin Kopp Some events to look out for in the coming months and a plea for volunteers to help arrange future events

Richard Blair Welcome

John Rodden Ponders the current state of Orwell Studies in the light of  recent character attacks following the publication of Anna Funder’s controversial new book Wifedom.

Trevor Fisher Examines the continuing relevance of Orwell and asks whether the  future is Orwellian.

Matthew Herbert Uses Nineteen Eighty-Four as a lens to offer his reflections on the  Post Truth world of Trump and Putin.

Desmond Avery Draws out some fascinating and surprising similarities  between the political views of Orwell and Simone Weil.

Les Hurst Did Orwell anticipate aerial drone warfare? In his two contributions in this issue, Les reminds us of the importance of dust jackets and also reflects on the use of helicopters in Nineteen- Eighty-Four.

Masha Karp Two recently discovered letters help her to shed some light on the  secrets of the Russian émigré publisher, Possev.

Allan Arpajian Examines the unlikely affinity between Orwell and the American  Novelist Henry Miller.

John Boaler Explores Orwell’s curious attachment to certain lower-upper-middle  class customs

Quentin Kopp Provides an update and some reflections on the recent Member Survey

• Reviews:

Carol Biederstadt Reviews a new novel A Man from Motihari

Norman Bissell Reviews Orwell’s Island (2023)

• History

Ron Bateman Examines the early history of The Orwell Society

Darcy Moore Pays tribute to Peter Duby, a descendant of the Limouzin  family and Orwell scholar

• Events
Quentin Kopp Events Report: Plans for Spring and Summer 2024

       Welcome

Quentin Kopp

• Tribute to Ian Angus
  John Rodden

• Tributes to Dione Venables
• Richard Blair
• Quentin Kopp
• Ron Bateman
• Richard Lance Keeble

D.J. Taylor Reflects on his new major study of Orwell, The New Life and the art of biographical writing.

Ian Bloom Would Orwell have supported the American Intervention in Vietnam? Perhaps a conversation with J.B Priestley will provide the answer.

David Saunders Zamiatin in Newcastle. Did his short stay influence We, his dystopian novel?

Brian Rubin Considers the unlikely friendship between Jack Common and George Orwell.

Mishca Burrows “Banana Republic” is the Winner of this year’s Orwell Society Dystopian Fiction.

John Boaler Orwell and the long novel he never wrote.

Hassan Akram Somerset Maugham may have influenced Orwell’s writing style but how does the content compare?

L.J. Hurst Recycling Orwell. How Orwell reused material in his writings.

Simon Fowler “The Liars’ School,” a vignette of Orwell’s training at the BBC.

Reviews:

Peter Marks Reviews John Rodden’s latest book, The Intellectual Species: Evolution or Extinction?

Ann Kronbergs Reviews the controversial new book, Wifedom, by Ann Funder

Events Report

Quentin Kopp

Tributes to Peter Davison:

• Richard Young
• Ron Bateman
• John Rodden
• Richard Blair

John Newsinger. “Dear Reg…Yours George”: George Orwell, Reginald Reynolds and the British Pamphleteers

John Bowler. The “Joys” of St Cyprian’s in A Clergyman’s Daughter

Benedict Cooper. Grime and Punishment: Orwell, the Grotesque and the Unjust

Kevin Carter. Orwell’s Cameras

L.J Hurst. Short-List and Curlies: Orwell and the 1936 Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse

Richard Hallmark. Notes on Censorship and the BBC

Zigurds Kronbergs. Latvian Editions of Orwell

Reviews:

Anna Vaninskaya. John Rodden’s Poetic Appreciation of Orwell. Review of Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy by John Rodden

Desmond Avery. “All Propaganda is Lies Even when One is Telling the Truth” Review of The Radio Front – The BBC and the Propaganda War 1939-45 by Ron Bateman

Norman Bissell. Fascinating New Insights. Review of Orwell’s Moustache: Addressing More Orwell Matters by Richard Keeble

Letter to the Editor

Quentin Kopp: Events Report

This edition’s front cover: the editors found this image on-line. if anybody knows its designer’s name, please let us know and we will credit him/her in the next issue.

Quentin Kopp. Welcome

Marsha Karp. War is Peace: an extract from her book Orwell and Russia

Eric Arthur Blair. On a Ruined Farm near the His Master’s Voice Gramophone Factory
Douglas Kerr. Unspoken Dilemma On this puzzling poem

Jeffrey Meyers’ Gulliver’s travels and Animal Farm
Jeffrey Meyers. The Beauty of Animal Farm

John Boaler. “Joyce Interests Me So Much That I Can’t Stop Talking About Him Once I Start” On James Joyce’s Ulysses

Ron Bateman. Orwell and the Radio War an abridged extract from his book The BBC and the Propaganda War 1939-45

Ruoyu Bu. Patriotism Winner of this year’s Orwell Society Dystopian Fiction Competition.

John Rodden. The Time is Un…Hitched? on Christopher Hitchens

Jason Crimp. Searching for the Rude Earth’s Tenants a review of The tramp in British Literature, 1850 – 1950 by Luke Lewin Davies

L. J. Hurst. Charles Dickens in the Road to Wigan Pier “As who should say”?

Ian Bloom. So Near… a Bibliographical encounter in Barcelona

Dione Venables. The Other Side of the Coin: A Hop-Picking Memory

Conor Bellon. What Orwell’s Teacup Teaches Us About Good Writing Simple writing about simple pleasures

Tom Miller and Sylvia Topp Letters to the Editor on Issue 19

Quentin Kopp. Events Report

Welcome by Richard Blair. 75 Years Ago…

John Rodden. All Anniversaries are Equal? (On Animal Farm’s 75th anniversary in the USA).

Masha Karp. Mysteries of Russian Archives. (The NKVD’s case against Orwell).

John Boaler. Differences Preventing Friendship. (On Orwell, Bevan and Jenny Lee)

Richard Lance Keeble. Oh Brother! Absent, Missing, Secret or Big.(Place of Brothers in Orwell’s fiction).

L.J. Hurst. Churchill, the Trust and the Brotherhood.

Eleni Socratous (Dystopian Fiction Prize-winner). ‘Needle and Thread’.

Julio Etchart. An African Interlude. (Introduction to his photographs of Morocco).

John Rodden. Self-Interrogation in Room 101?

Alan Saeed in Conversation with Rewsen Hisen, a translator of Animal Farm into Kurdish.

L.J. Hurst. Comrade Withers on Ice. (On Floating Fortresses in Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Desmond Avery. Aloof and Scintillating. Review of Will Horsley’s Writing in the Dark.

Norman Bissell. “Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening…”. Review of Rebecca Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses.

Quentin Kopp’s Events Report.

Neil Smith: Orwell in Kent

Richard Blair: ‘I have been too busy battling with the garden…’

Brian Thompson: Looking After Eileen’s Grave

Richard Lance Keeble: Angling for the Truth:

• Orwell’s Passion for Fishing

John Rodden: The Big O

Jeffrey Myers: The Impact of Burma

Masha Karp: The POUM and Pravda

Joan Boaler: ‘Awkward Reverence’

John Newsinger: The Activist Journalist

Oliver Lewis: A Man of Our Time:

• Architecture, Brexit, Climate Change and All the way Down to Trump

Ann Kronbergs: Pieces of Fictionalised Reportage

Michael Casey: ‘An Age Like This…’

Darcy Moore: Did Orwell Have Asperger’s? -No!

Ann Kronbergs: How Orwell Projects Inspire Children in Wigan and South Shields

Anna Vaninskaya: Might-have-beens: George Orwell and Victor Serge

Sylvia Topp: Why Eileen Matters: Jason Crimp Interviews Sylvia Topp

Michael Arthur Soares: Orwellian Space of Trafalgar Square

Quentin Kopp: Membership “Enjoyed by All”

Masha Karp: The Unusual Landlady

Jeffrey Meyers: Orwell’s Last Fiction

Dystopian Fiction Winner: Where the Monkeys Went

Jon G. Bradley and Sam Allison: “Smelly Little Orthodoxies”:

• 100,000 Ways to Kill Individual Freedoms, Quebec’s New Reality

John Rodden: My Orwell, Deft or Daft

Richard Lance Keeble: My Seven Lucky Years Immersed in Orwell

John Boaler: Did Orwell have Asperger’s?

John P. Lethbridge: The Celebrated Swindler Madam Hanau

Richard Blair: With Love, Erichttps://orwellsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Jnl-16-cover.jpg

Ann Kronbergs: Orwell’s Favourite Aunt

Masha Karp: Lanti and the Soviet Union

L.J Hurst: Letters From Cambridge, Surveillance Too?

Jeffrey Meyers: The Timber Industry in Burmese Days

John Rodden: “Trumping” Orwell?

Christopher Angel: An Evolution

Richard Lance Keeble: His Tie, That Moustache and the politics of Dress

John Rodden: George Orwell, “Bigfoot”

Desmond Avery: Choosing Between Two Evils…

Norman Bissell: The Lost World of The Lost Girls

John Rodden: George Orwell, Prose Laureate

Carol Biederstadt: The Case of a Hybridised “Florwell”

Rina Crick: Burmese Days:

• A Visit to Katha in December 2018

Jon Platten: The Report, winner of the Dystopian Fiction Competition

Sylvia Topp: A Moroccan Interlude

L.J Hurst: Schools in the Sight of God:

• George Orwell and the Social Distinctions of Education

Brian Rubin: William Morris:

• “Empty Windbag” or Patron Saint of Socialism

John Boaler: Orwell and ‘Cranks”

Richard Lance Keeble: Two Wonderful Ways

• to Celebrate Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Anniversary

Ann Kronbergs: Writing in the Blitz:

• Inez Holden and the Second World War

Brian Palmer: Splendid Isolation:

• A New Novel about Orwell’s Last Year

D.J Taylor. A Five-year Stretch: Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Long Gestation.

Richard Young. George Orwell and The Betrayal of the Left.

Jon Bradley and Sam Allison. Censorship in the Classroom.

Jason Crimp. A Man of Much Voice and No Song.

• on Paul Potts, Orwell’s friend, the author of a memoir Don Quixote on a Bicycle.

L.J.Hurst. Neither Lions Nor Donkeys: Richard Walmesley Blair and the Mules.

Bernard Crossley. Critic and Collector:

• Orwell on the Postcards of Donald McGill.

Tom Miller. Look Back on Orwell

• Orwell and John Osborne.

Roger Howe. George Orwell in Theory and Practice

• Review of David Dwan’s Liberty, Equality & Humbug, OUP, 2018

Darcy Moore. ‘An Astonishingly Comprehensive Record’

A Review of George Orwell on Screen by David Ryan

Carole Lochhead. Outstanding Biographer who Shed New Light on Orwell.

Obituary of Gordon Bowker.

Ann Kronbergs. Why Does the Writing Make Us Chase the Writer?

• On Southwold and Orwell’s letters to Eleanor Jaques

Paul Anderson. Best Introduction to Orwell’s Politics So Far – But Not the Last Word.

• A Review of John Newsinger’s book Hope Lies in the Proles: George Orwell and the Left.

Masha Karp. Orwell and Russia.

• A Preface to her Russian Biography.

Julio Etchart’s Photographs: Imagining Orwell.

L.J.Hurst. Reading on Rooftop Guard.

• The books Orwell read in the days of Barcelona fighting.

Kathryn Peck. The Dressmakers.

• A short story, winner of the 2018 Orwell Society Dystopian Fiction Competition.

Tom Miller. Etonians in Dystopia

• On Orwell and Huxley.

John Boaler. Little-Known Dystopian Vision – Not Quite Orwell’s Match.

• A Review of Constantine Fitzgibbon’s When the Kissing Had to Stop.

Joe Nicholas. “Of Pobbles and Their Toes”: George Orwell’s Essays and Popular Culture.

Oliver Lewis. Where the Orwell Story Began.

Jeffrey Meyers. “I Regard Conrad as One of the Best Writers of this Century…”

Stephen Wadhams. Mr Orwell Goes to Broadwey.

Julio Etchart. Imagining Orwell.

Luke Seaber. The Hidden Complexities in Down and Out in Paris and London.

Richard Keeble. Homage to Catalonia and the  Journalistic Imagination.

An Exchange on Orwell and the Fabians Between Dione Venables and William (Liam ) Hunt.

Wiesiek Powaga. The Animals Revolt: A Detective Story.

Michael Soares. Urgency of Orwellian Spaces in the Secondary Classroom.

Quentin Kopp. Society Events 2018-19.

Ron Bateman. Sheila Davison: Crucial Proof-Reader of the Complete Works.

Desmond Avery. Orwell at the BBC.

Richard Lance Keeble. Beyond Room 101.

John Newsinger. “Bitched, Buggered and Bewildered”: Ethel Mannin and George Orwell.

Interview with Nick Cohen. Where are the Left Now?

Luke Davies. Going Incognito: The Literary Tradition behind Down and Out in Paris and London. (Review of Luke Seaber’s book).

Richard Lance Keeble. “Two Titans of the Fight for Individual Freedom” (Review of Thomas E. Ricks’s book “Churchill and Orwell”).

John Boaler. Homage to Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Review of Boualem Sansal’s “2084- The End of the World”).

Maja Emilie Velfen Olsen. The No Child Policy (winner of 2017 Dystopian Fiction Competition).

Roger Howe. Orwell: Contemporaries and Continuers.

Letters about Journal 10.

Richard Young. The Road to Wigan Pier : Publication Complexities and a Little Mystery.

Sylvia Topp. Eileen at Oxford.

Tom Miller. At War with Eastasia.

Masha Karp. “Who the deuce is Mr Schimanski?”

Richard Lance Keeble. Orwell “the Virtuoso of the Nostrils” (a review of Orwell’s Nose by John Sutherland).

John Boaler. When a Fellow Polemicist Assesses Orwell (a review of “And Yet…. Essays” by Christopher Hitchens).

L. J. Hurst. A Re-Discovery of Orwell ( a Tribune column in Scots Digest)

Roger Howe. Orwell in the Sixties.

Neil Smith. The Results of the Recent Member Survey.

Desmond Avery. Deeper Down and Further Out (Orwell on Jura).

L.J.Hurst. Two Memories and Charles Dickens.

Masha Karp. The Raven Vanishes. (Censoring Orwell)

Interview with Paul Anderson (Orwell and Socialism).

Tim Dagleish. Orwell on the Hebrides (poem)

John Boaler. A Slightly Earlier Road to Wigan Pier. (by H.V.Morton)

Krystyna Wieszek. Orwell and the Poles.

Sylvia Topp. Orwell in Love.

Richard Young. The Pub and a Promotional Flyer.

Peter Davison. The Home Guard and Orwell.

Richard Blair. Orwell’s Jura vs Jura Today.

Holly Domney (Winner of Dystopian Short Story Competition). Etanidrobus.

Two Contrasting Talks at the AGM.

Peter Davison. The End of the Road.

Jenny Lindsay. Reckless As a Flood (poem).

L.J.Hurst. New Road and Strange Companions.

P.J.Lethbridge. The Man Whose Gait Orwell Copied (Eugene Aram)

Brian Rubin. In Praise of Christmas.

Tim Thorpe. Did George Orwell Receive Fan Letters Before He Was Famous?

John Boaler. Books – And Still More.

Gordon Bowker. Introduction to George Orwell: The Complete Poetry.

Richard Lance Keeble. Row over Orwell’s “Little List” Rumbles on.

Richard Keeble. How Orwell Can Inspire & Far Beyond Mere Hackery. (Reviews of Philip Bounds’ Orwell and Marxism and Orwell’s Select Journalism)

Brian Rubin. Orwell and the Anarchists.

L.J.Hurst. The Not so Cheerful Building Society.

Dione Venables. Orwell as Poet.

Tim Bancroft. Dystopian Prize Winner.

Ludger Wilmot. I lived in Chelsea Spike.

Tom Kelly. 10th Anniversary of the Untimely Death of Eileen Blair (poem)

Paul Richards. Orwell in Eastbourne.

Richard Keeble. The Orwell/Self Spat.

Michael Soares. The Theory and Practise of Oligarchical Collectivism.

Brian Rubin. Orwell: The Proletarian Writer.

Howard Wolf. The Decisive Act of Self Defence.

Michael Rank. Orwell in China.

Richard Keeble. Orwell by his great friend David Astor.

Peter Davison. Tim Rosenthal: in tribute.

L. J. Hurst. Orwell and the Missing Money Lender.

Tom Miller. Reflections on Nineteen Eighty-Four

Peter Marks. Extracts from Orwell the Essayist.

Peter Duby. The Man who inspired George Orwell.

Peter Davison. Selecting What Orwell Wrote.

Richard Young. Collecting Orwell.

L. J. Hurst. I James Blunt (on Orwell’s review)

Maggie Huff-Rousseile. Memories of My Burmese Days.

Brian Rubin. Orwell and Popular Culture.

Quentin Kopp. My Father George Kopp.

Peter Davison. Dickens -First and Last.

Harry Bark. How Relevant is Orwell Today?

Tom Miller. Revolt in Dystopia.

Richard Keeble. George Orwell, Journalist and Me.

Peter Burness-Smith. A Fugitive’s Progress.

Peter Stansky. From Across the Pond.

Peter Davison. Parallel Worlds (on Vasily Grossman)

Douglas Kerr. Living with George Orwell.

Dominic Cavendish. wwwhere do we go from here?

Dr Philip Bounds. Orwell and the Paranormal.

Ron Bateman. Writers on Hop-Picking.