Today, Wednesday 25 June, was George Orwell’s birthday. While always unlikely that someone with a love of such strong tobacco would make it to the age of 100 – never mind 111 – we at ten million hardbacks see no reason not to mark the occasion.
Make an incredibly intense pot of tea, or pour out a dram or three of Jura and join us in saying, ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. Orwell!’
1. What do you admire about George Orwell?
I feel the same way about George Orwell as I do about Tony Benn. Both are posh gits done well. They really set an example for anyone that has a conscience. A lot of the time, class conflict, north vs south, developed world vs. emerging economies and the like are painted as issues that have rigid boundaries, which creates unnecessary prejudices. Going back to Marx, one of the cheapest shots at him is that he was funded by Engels who enjoyed the fruits of capitalism because of his businesses. What Orwell, Benn and Engels show though, is that if you have the right attitude — a conscience about global injustices — and are willing to take the time to create a critical framework through which to view the world, your background doesn’t, and shouldn’t, matter.
2. What is your favourite Orwell book?
In nonfiction, Homage to Catalonia really tore away the romanticism of the Spanish Civil War for me, which was important.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying was a great piece of fiction. Perhaps it isn’t a masterpiece, but the way it deals with armchair socialism is entertaining and still makes me feel guilty.
3. Do you have a favourite image of Orwell?
No favourite image.
4. What is your favourite quote from Orwell?
My desk at work.
[Editor: See note below for more about this quote]
Our Man in Abiko:
1. What do you admire about George Orwell?
I can’t remember now whether it was Orwell or Mark Twain that turned me on to the possibilities of writing, I often confuse the two. Both were at heart journalists, both armed with a keen eye for hypocrisy and a matter-of-fact style that targeted pretension as much as injustice. When I read Orwell, I think “I want to write like this.” And yet I can’t, at least not as well. But that doesn’t stop me from trying.
2. What is your favourite Orwell book?
I like his essays the most. Why I Write should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the written word and adding a few of their own.
3. Do you have a favourite image of Orwell?
He wasn’t the most photogenic. When I try to picture his face, all I can see are the tea-ring stained white and orange covers of the ’60s Penguin paperback editions on my Dad’s shelf. That’s what he looks like to me.
4. What is your favourite quote from Orwell?
“As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.” (The opening line of The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius.)
John Maguire:
1. What do you admire about George Orwell?
I admire the fact that Orwell was a master craftsman who loved his work. He wrote with conviction, passion and authenticity. His writing questions, provokes and encourages the reader to think.
2. What is your favourite Orwell book?
Keep the Aspidistra Flying, a socially critical exploration of opting out of the system. I think this really resonated with me because at the time I was working in a bookstore and writing poetry like the main protagonist Gordon Comstock. I also had a somewhat romantic vision of the writing life, I still have rose-tinted glasses but prefer contact lenses these days.
3. Do you have a favourite image of Orwell?
A photograph taken in 1946 by Veina Richards. I love the way he is looking at his son with such pride.
4. What is your favourite quote from Orwell?
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
J. C. Greenway:
1. What do you admire about George Orwell?
I think, following on from what Rich said above, it is the way he broke free of his upbringing. Men of Orwell’s class weren’t meant to speak out about the injustices of the world and give the unheard a voice, they were bred to do a job and to keep quiet about any unsavory aspects of it. He recalls in his essays being quite taken with Kipling’s tales of Empire-building as a child and in The Lion and The Unicorn muses that in more peaceful times he might have been a vicar.
Yet he was transformed by Burma, Wigan and Spain into something far beyond the imaginings of the average Old Etonian. He actively sought out situations and people that he wasn’t familiar or comfortable with to broaden his view of the world and to inform his writing. I think that is why he has remained so relevant today.
2. What is your favourite Orwell book?
The Road to Wigan Pier. Although they were a few miles up the road from Wigan, the book echoes the stories my family told of the ‘Hungry Thirties’: terrified of the sack, hiding from the rent man, unable to afford the doctor for anything that wasn’t imminently life-threatening. My own grandfather and his brother walked from Liverpool to London and the South Coast to find work. And yet theirs was a world unknown to most outside the Northern industrial centres.
Orwell’s gift is to take the myths created to keep the system running – miners keeping coal in their baths, the Dole being so high it encouraged the poor to marry – and destroy them with calm analysis and journalistic style, while never losing his compassion for those trapped within.
3. Do you have a favourite image of Orwell?
Having attempted to make tea according to the steps laid down in ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’, it has to be this one.
4. What is your favourite quote from Orwell?
“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
1. What do you admire about George Orwell?
Orwell taking a bullet in the neck for anti-fascism is a source of inspiration. I also admire his understated, dry humour.
For balance, I am not so keen on the ex-policeman’s liking for lists of wrongdoers. I suppose I can understand where he was coming from, but still.
2. What is your favourite Orwell book?
Inside the Whale and other essays… tied with 1984, of course!
3. Do you have a favourite image of Orwell?
4. What is your favourite quote from Orwell?
“Orthodoxy, of whatever colour, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.” (Politics and the English Language)
Editor’s note: Sometime after this post was published, Tokyo Rich noticed that the quote about news and public relations, which we had all long-believed was attributed to Orwell, was under investigation by the Quote Investigator website. The results are very interesting and the post is here.
