Steven Wadhams in London

The Orwell Society was privileged to be joined by Orwell radio biographer Steven Wadhams on Sunday August 20th. Joining us for lunch, Steven then gave a short account of his efforts throughout 1983 to travel the length and breadth of the British Isles to record the memories of every living person he could trace who had known George Orwell.

The Wadhams’ Tapes became the basis of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio biography of George Orwell, narrated by Orwell’s old friend George Woodcock. They also became the basis of Remembering Orwell (Penguin Books, 1984), a book now desperately rare. We were pleased to hear that the book will be re-issued as The Orwell Tapes later this year by a British Columbia-based publisher (the Society is investigating how copies can be distributed in Britain).

In the last two years, Steven has re-visited this material in the CBC’s series Ideas with Paul Kennedy.

Photograph by David Harding

The members of the Society and Steven then made their way to the Old Red Lion Theatre to see a performance of Mrs Orwell. After the show Steven was seen in conversation with Peter Hamilton Dyer (the stage Orwell).

All present thanked – as we do again – Steven for all his work. He wrote a short account some years ago which is available on this website: Orwell’s Crystal Chandelier.