New GOS Edition

Two Stansky Anniversaries Celebrated in New GOS Edition

Volume 6 No. 2

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Peter Stansky’s 90^th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the publication of his The Unknown Orwell are celebrated in the latest 180-page, bumper edition of George Orwell Studies .

In ‘Joyeux Anniversaires’, fellow American John Rodden tells the fascinating, dramatic story of how the pioneering biography, written with William Abrahams, came to be. Also in this issue, Darcy Moore reveals the intelligence officer who spied on Eric Blair in 1929 when he in lived in Paris. Like Blair, he had begun his career in the Indian Imperial Police and later approved the recruitment of the notorious double-agent, Kim Philby.

G. Alexander Denning puts a critical spotlight on the role of Julia, Winston Smith’s secret lover, in Nineteen Eighty-Four; Rebecca Clayton examines Orwell’s handling of the myth of the struggling artist in his 1936 novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, while Jaron Murphy reflects on the appearance of two extracts from Orwell’s essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ (1946) in the latest National Council for the Training of Journalists’ guide for trainee journos.

Orwell’s status as a political prophet is one the wane, according to Nicholas Harris, winner of the 2020 Orwell Society’s Young Journalist award. Orwell’s career at the BBC from 1941-1943 is reviewed by Ron Bateman who considers the question: did he betray his principles by working for the corporation? Neil Smith compares Orwell’s account of hop picking in his novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), with his diary record. And Martin Tyrrell goes in search of the remarkable Máirín Mitchell whose book, Storm Over Spain, Orwell reviewed favourably around the time he was working on Homage to Catalonia.

Richard Lance Keeble’s editorial takes a close look at two fascinating letters Orwell wrote from Paris in March and April 1945 to his great friend, David Astor, the Observer journalist, which have just come to light. And in another feature, Keeble finds much to admire in Laurence Brander’s 1954 study of Orwell’s life and writings. Altogether, the articles make for a wonderful Orwellian feast – not to be missed!

• George Orwell Studies, jointly edited by Tim Crook and Richard Lance Keeble, is totally independent of The Orwell Society. The annual subscription is just £35 for an individual. Details: Abramis, 01284 717884; email: info@abramis.co.uk.