George Orwell’s adopted son to give talk at University of Lincoln

Richard Blair, the adopted son of George Orwell and Patron of the Orwell Society, is to give a keynote presentation to a symposium at the University of Lincoln on 12 June. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, is being organised by Richard Lance Keeble, Professor of Journalism and chair of the Orwell Society, to celebrate the 65^th anniversary of the publication of Orwell’s famous dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Richard Blair’s talk is to be titled: ‘George Orwell: Who was he?’ Other leading international Orwell scholars are also expected to present papers.

Orwell remains one of the most studied and analysed writers of all time. And yet Orwell scholarship continues to explore new areas of his life, his ideas, his friendships, his politics and his extraordinary output of writings – which included essays, journalism, novels, letters, book and film reviews and diaries.

Abstracts of 200 words are invited from scholars in a range of disciplines: journalism, literature, politics, history, creative writing and intelligence studies for consideration. Please send abstracts to rkeeble@lincoln.ac.uk by 11 April 2014. Applicants will be notified by the end of April 2014. The papers will form the basis for a collection of essays, to be published under the title George Orwell NowFurther information and symposium registration details can be found online HERE or by contacting the conference office on conferences@lincoln.ac.uk