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<title><![CDATA[Orwell & the Russian Captain]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXWX5m1EaPxFH0TXPGaG87AR</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/1-ZpD6GDOeCGrLzWlQSUXMb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell & the Russian Captain" title="Orwell & the Russian Captain"> “It was now absolutely necessary to find work, and I remembered a friend of mine, a Russian waiter named Boris, who might be able to help me. I had first met him in the public ward of a hospital, where he was being treated for arthritis in the left leg. He had told me to come to him if I were ever in difficulties.” George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
Orwell à Paris: Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe <a href="https://editions-exils.fr/">Editions Exils</a>, 2024 Preface: <a class="livre_collabs" href="https://www.babelio.com/auteur/Thomas-Snegaroff/237809">Thomas Snégaroff </a> Translator: <a class="livre_collabs" style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.babelio.com/auteur/Nicolas-Ragonneau/462728">Nicolas Ragonneau</a> EAN: 9782914823340 240 pages
Reading George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London saved <a href="https://twitter.com/duncanroberts75">Duncan Roberts’</a> sanity when he worked as a jobbing sous-chef in Melbourne more than a decade ago. He kept a well-thumbed copy of the book in his apron pocket as a quotable way of getting through shifts when all he really wanted to do was walk up to the head chef, theatrically stab a knife into a nearby chopping board and tell him exactly what he thought of him and his miserable kitchen. Instead, Duncan would take a deep breath and say, “Chapter 14. The head chef was an insufferable bully”. Most situations he encountered in the kitchen were mirrored in the text of Orwell’s first published book.
On returning to Paris, Duncan – who I can safely say is a kindred spirit – spent years researching the real people and places mentioned in Orwell’s book. His labour of love was rewarded this week when <a href="https://editions-exils.fr/">Orwell à Paris: Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe </a>was launched at the <a href="https://twitter.com/H_Litteraires">Hotel Littéraire Le Swann</a>! Orwell devotees are in for a genuine treat when they get their hands on a copy!
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/paris-collection/orwell-roberts-1/'><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="344" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-1.jpg?fit=344%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-1.jpg?w=1032&ssl=1 1032w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-1.jpg?resize=344%2C500&ssl=1 344w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-1.jpg?resize=550%2C800&ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1116&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/paris-collection/orwell-roberts-2/'><img decoding="async" width="344" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-2.jpg?fit=344%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-2.jpg?w=1032&ssl=1 1032w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-2.jpg?resize=344%2C500&ssl=1 344w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-2.jpg?resize=550%2C800&ssl=1 550w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Orwell-Roberts-2.jpg?resize=768%2C1116&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px" /></a>
Duncan’s literary detective work in modern-day Paris has uncovered significant new material about Orwell’s time in the French capital nearly a century ago. It is rarer than one would expect to find publications about Orwell which contain genuinely original research and this is especially the case regarding his life in Burma, Paris and London during the 1920s. 
Duncan’s research adventures, on the trail of the Russian captain, are deeply engaging (especially for anyone who has ever undertaken historical detective work). The information about the “real Boris” will be what interests most fans of Orwell’s first book who are curious to know more biographical details of his time in Paris. However, there is much more of interest than just this story! The reader is taken on a journey back to the Paris Orwell experienced in the late-1920s.
Duncan engagingly weaves two of his important contemporary research contacts, <a href="https://valghent.com/dimitri-vicheney-great-light-paris/">Dimitri Vicheney</a> and <a href="https://www.emigrationrusse.com/auteur/">Andreï Korliakov</a>, into the narrative. Korliakov, a photo-historian whose herculean efforts to acquire, restore and identify Russian emigres in Paris proved enormously beneficial in identifying Boris, the colourful ex-Russian officer and waiter who helps the unnamed narrator of Down and Out in Paris and London find work as a plongeur.
<h3>Hôpital Cochin</h3>
Orwell, by the time he died, knew all about hospitals. He had been confined in a Republican military hospital after being wounded in the Spanish Civil War by a sniper’s bullet incising through his throat. He was to spend many months in sanatoriums in England and Scotland fighting the pulmonary tuberculosis that would eventually kill him. However, the horrors witnessed during his stay in early 1929 on the public ward of Hôpital Cochin would never leave him. He eventually fled the ward, without waiting for a medical discharge, on the 22nd March after fifteen terrible nights experiencing how the poor die. Orwell later learned there was no worse hospital in Paris.
The most significant event during his stay was meeting Anatole Kupper (1896-1951) the day after being admitted to the hospital. Kupper, an ex-Russian army officer suffering terribly from arthritis, was a patient for three months. They were numbered 3058 and 3060 on the hospital admissions register. Kupper’s profession was recorded as ‘waiter’ and later in the year Blair sought the Russian’s assistance when desperately in need of a job. Anatole was to gain literary immortality as “Boris”, the most memorable character in the book that was eventually published as Down and Out in Paris and London.
We learn from Roberts that Kupper had not recuperated at all quickly from his painful, arthritic knee and after three months ensconced in Hôpital Cochin was transferred to the Hôpital Militaire de Vincennes, Saint-Mandé, located in the the south-east of Paris. He was released in July 1929 but had still not fully recovered. It was around this time that Blair sought out his friend about finding work, if not as a waiter, at least in the kitchen as a plongeur.
We know from Down and Out in Paris and London that Boris stayed at the Hotel Edouard VII while on leave during the war where he later sought employment as a nightwatchman before become head waiter at the more prestigious, Hotel Scribe. Duncan discovered that in between these two Paris hotel jobs, Kupper moved to Belgium. This “enigmatic monochrome photo of Kupper” was included in his work visa application for the Hotel Carlton, in Antwerp.
<figure id="attachment_27557" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27557" style="width: 439px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-27557" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Anatole-Kupper_edited.jpg?resize=439%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="439" height="500" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27557" class="wp-caption-text">Anatole Kupper aka “Boris” (1923)</figcaption></figure>
It was a short-lived position and barely three months later he was back on French soil. One record of his departure from Belgium on the 18th of September 1923, included a forwarding address: Capitaine Kupper Union des officiers Russes 79 rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris Duncan (and I encourage you to read the book to find out about Kupper’s military service during World War One) discovered that ever since remaining in Paris, after the cessation of hostilities, the ex-Russian captain had managed to “stay off lists” and away from “ex-commanding officers who might still hold sway over him, or worse still, try to put him on a boat back to Russia as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Lokhvitsky#:~:text=Nikolai%20Aleksandrovich%20Lokhvitsky%20(Russian%3A%20%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%CC%81%D0%B9,Russian%20Expeditionary%20Force%20in%20France.">General Lokhvitski</a> had threatened to do”. He points out that giving the Russian Officers’ Union as a postal address is a clear indication that he had no job to come back to and nowhere to stay.
<h3>Fiction or Reportage?</h3>
Orwell à Paris: Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe will provide knowledgable readers with good cause to reconsider the vexed question of whether Down and Out in Paris and London is genuinely reportage – or fiction! The book always defied conventional classification by publishers. Commonly considered to be reportage, like two of Orwell’s other books from the 1930s – The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and Homage to Catalonia (1938) – it is just is not that simple.
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/paris-collection/">The torturous publication history </a>of the book goes some way towards explaining why it is challenging to classify it. It is also important to consider the very real threat for publishers that they could be gaoled for libel. You will never find Orwell’s first book in the fiction section at a contemporary bookseller. However, it is important to consider the two first editions of the book. 
The text on the original Gollancz dust jacket from 1933 positioned readers to expect a book that held their ‘attention far more closely than 90% of novels’. When Penguin first published Down and Out in Paris and London (December 1940) ‘fiction’ was emblazoned on the familiar orange and white paperback cover design. 
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/04/29/orwell-the-russian-captain/down-and-out-in-paris-london-2-copy/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="374" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Down-and-Out-in-Paris-London-2-copy.png?fit=374%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Down-and-Out-in-Paris-London-2-copy.png?w=468&ssl=1 468w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Down-and-Out-in-Paris-London-2-copy.png?resize=374%2C500&ssl=1 374w" sizes="(max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/04/29/orwell-the-russian-captain/daoipal-1-scaled-copy/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="343" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?fit=343%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?w=1758&ssl=1 1758w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?resize=343%2C500&ssl=1 343w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?resize=549%2C800&ssl=1 549w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?resize=768%2C1118&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?resize=1055%2C1536&ssl=1 1055w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/daoipal-1-scaled-copy.png?resize=1406%2C2048&ssl=1 1406w" sizes="(max-width: 343px) 100vw, 343px" /></a>
Blair was a long-term resident of the Hôtel des Bons Amis which was fictionalised by Orwell as the Hôtel des Trois Moineaux. The hotel had been leased from Henri-Antoine Mons and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, by the friendly Italian immigrant ‘restaurateurs’, Carlos and Clothilde Ferrari who also ran the bistro. He later described it as “a dark, rickety warren of five storeys, cut up by wooden partitions into forty rooms. The rooms were small and inveterately dirty, for there was no maid, and Madame F., the patronne, had no time to do any sweeping.” Duncan’s research shows this is not an accurate rendering of the establishment.
Duncan’s reveals that Boris’ father was not as recounted in Down and Out in Paris and London:
<blockquote>
Like most Russian refugees, he had had an adventurous life. His parents, killed in the Revolution, had been rich people, and he had served through the war in the Second Siberian Rifles, which, according to him, was the best regiment in the Russian Army… The only things left to Boris by the Revolution were his medals and some photographs of his old regiment; he had kept these when everything else went to the pawn-shop. Almost every day he would spread the photographs out on the bed and talk about them: ‘Voilà, mon ami! There you see me at the head of my company. Fine big men, eh? Not like these little rats of Frenchmen. A captain at twenty–not bad, eh? Yes, a captain in the Second Siberian Rifles; and my father was a colonel.
</blockquote>
Boris’s father, Ernest Kupper, was not a colonel but the station master in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhmut">Bakhmut</a>, a town in Eastern Ukraine. Duncan discovered that elder Kupper was decorated by the Tsar for civic, not military achievements. Did Orwell embellish what his friend told him – or was he told an untruth? Did Anatole Kupper’s parents lose their lives during the Russian Revolution? It is not clear but certainly very possible!
<h3>Personal reflection</h3>
“…Boris was inclined to shirk, partly because of his lame leg, partly because he was ashamed …” 
Duncan has published the images of Anatole Kupper in his officer’s uniform which I first saw three years ago. I vividly remember the moment, when we were looking at one photo together while on a Zoom call, Duncan spotted Anatole had a walking-stick. It seemed the ultimate confirmation that we were looking at the real “Boris”!
Duncan contacted me several years ago to discuss our shared interest in Eric Blair’s time in Paris. He and I had both worked out that “Boris” must have been listed on the hospital admissions register. The copy which had been supplied to me by the archivist was frustratingly truncated just below Eric Blair’s name. Duncan generously shared the complete document. I provided him with the real name of Eric Blair’s accommodation in Paris, Hôtel des Bons Amis. We set-up an online folder, shared our knowledge and had many lengthy zoom calls.
Since then, Duncan has visited Kiama with his family and I have enjoyed his company in Paris! It is absolutely fabulous he has successfully published this extraordinarily interesting book detailing his experiences “on the trail of Eric Blair in the 1920s” with such excellent research into Anatole Kupper’s life!
Orwell à Paris: Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe will become an invaluable resource for scholars, as well as those with a more general interest in Orwell and Russian emigres during the interwar period in Paris. 
Highest recommendation!
Please feel encouraged to <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Orwell-Paris-d%C3%A8che-capitaine-russe/dp/2914823347/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KAQAMHTQ5DAK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GdSxZK0pxnB4SYmyKki_XhaDwxGRQkJBtFppE-sQm_o2Sa37TEO09fv2tOZIS1QIvEiEc0nmORg0x_6yHdp8uEmq7xbFcNU00z3CEEL--VD9vFCpbGIvK9Nb5s9oXjABGGhP9ijt8yuYUcpF2XQvMo4j8Y1cTRQadVJMjEhLzRgsO9fjNEcISiVebgf2whL8w9WtnXRWcmIawPWa4uHpmChI4q9Dq1-0m59eHcssq0AcKBVAR86m1vhSokEyBQc1qltgEh8EpjBaqiOJR7V_e-CCag7wdOqgogy9xopy2UE.R1NKY53QpCBi01wp7aiulqd8CsyYlFhyOVydIgf9tUk&dib_tag=se&keywords=duncan+roberts+orwell&qid=1714193687&sprefix=duncan+roberts+orwel%2Caps%2C271&sr=8-1">buy a copy</a> plus follow <a href="https://twitter.com/duncanroberts75">Duncan on X/Twitter</a> and and check out <a href="https://duncanroberts.co.uk/">his blog</a>.
<figure id="attachment_27714" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27714" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-27714 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Duncan-Roberts.jpeg?resize=480%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="480" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Duncan-Roberts.jpeg?resize=480%2C500&ssl=1 480w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Duncan-Roberts.jpeg?resize=768%2C800&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Duncan-Roberts.jpeg?resize=1475%2C1536&ssl=1 1475w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Duncan-Roberts.jpeg?w=1966&ssl=1 1966w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27714" class="wp-caption-text">Duncan Roberts</figcaption></figure>

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<pubDate>Sun, 28 Apr 2024 18:24:43 +0200</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXWX5m1EaPxFH0TXPGaG87AR</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Crow]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXXrNM0x3uKrJK8qfTAM-Smm</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/HexkxI5FkV1z-EUT1WoX2cb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="The Crow" title="The Crow"> <h3 style="text-align: center;">I knew a man, I knew a man 
As thin as any grudging crow.</h3>
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/">Eros with Chilblains </a>was not the only poem <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/">Ruth Pitter (1897-1992)</a> wrote about George Orwell. “The Crow”, published in The Bridge (1945), was scribed at her lowest ebb during World War II. She crossed the Battersea Bridge each day to work long hours at the Morgan Crucible Munitions Factory while the Luftwaffe terrorised London. In happier days, this was where Orwell had fished from the canal-bank and told her that the trees in Battersea Park looked “very like the Burmese jungle”. Even back then, she felt that he sometimes looked “well, young and gay, sometimes quite grey and desperate”.
Since 1930, Pitter had operated a successful wholesale arts and crafts company with her friend and business partner, Kathleen O’Hara. Besides painting designs on vases, trays and other ornaments, she was enjoying critical success as a poet. Pitter had been awarded the prestigious <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthornden_Prize">Hawthornden Prize </a>in 1937. The newspaper reports noted she had been an avid writer since five years of age and that this “spare time hobby” had resulted in five volumes of poetry being published since 1920. The war had recast her life horribly and Pitter considered suicide.
<figure id="attachment_27502" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27502" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="wp-image-27502 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-bridge-2-e1711358345288-800x501.png?resize=800%2C501&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="501" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-bridge-2-e1711358345288.png?resize=800%2C501&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-bridge-2-e1711358345288.png?resize=500%2C313&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-bridge-2-e1711358345288.png?resize=768%2C481&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-bridge-2-e1711358345288.png?w=1485&ssl=1 1485w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27502" class="wp-caption-text">The Bridge (1945)</figcaption></figure>
Contextually, Pitter had first met Orwell in the year her first book of poetry was published and he was still at Eton College. She was residing at Mall Chambers in Kensington, where Orwell’s family also rented. She famously found him accommodation in London, during late 1927, in the Portobello Road, from where he launched his first forays into the East End as a tramp. When Pitter and O’Hara opened their business in 1930, she recalled how:
<blockquote>Orwell used to turn up now and then. He liked our large workshop. I remember his changing into very shabby clothes in its shadowy recesses, prior to some excursion into the seamy side of life. </blockquote>
The last time she saw him before his death was in the early autumn of 1942. She had been invited to their “damp basement flat” by his wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy:
<blockquote>While we were talking, and working away at cooking supper…Orwell came in. Like a ghost. No doubt he was showing the effects of his recent illness, and of course he did live another 7 or 8 years, but I thought then that he must be dying. The emaciation, the waxen pallor, the slow, careful movements, all shocked and distressed me. But he seemed cheerful, fetched some beer, and sent out again to see if his mother would come in—she was living close by.</blockquote>
This poem must have been written in the aftermath of that visit.
THE CROW
A bird, the master of the air, 
Is flimsy, like a cheating toy. 
It makes you sorry, if you care 
For the loud song, the soaring joy, 
For that taut hawk that looks so strong. 
His bones are hollow, and his breast 
Like a thin box of some frail wood. 
Bad luck can never dog him long, 
Soon comes the cold and the great rest. 
Perhaps the creatures find it good. 
Perhaps that kestrel, if it could 
Speak with hooked beak, would say to me, 
“So vulnerable joy must be.”
I never held, living or dead, 
The barred hawk in my grasping hand; 
But once the children kept and fed 
A crow they found in the meadow-land, 
Whose foot was hurt, preventing him 
From leaping up, and so from flight. 
They thought that rest for his poor limb 
In a small coop, would set him right.
And so it proved; but day by day, 
Though more familiar and less lame, 
He only lived to get away 
And never, never could be tame: 
Approach the shed in which he lay, 
Up-wind, as softly as a cat; 
Peep through the crack… his eye would say 
“You’re there… I wonder what you’re at?”
Taken in hand, he did not pant 
And tremble, as the small birds do; 
His gimcrack carcase gave no sign; 
But his grim eye the postulant 
To friendship damned with all he knew; 
Each day he lost a little shine.
I knew a man, I knew a man 
As thin as any grudging crow. 
He also had his bitter damn 
For all his jailers here below, 
And also for the one above. 
His hatred was a kind of faith; 
And such a man one needs must love, 
But does not mourn for at his death.
I loved him for his monstrous hate, 
The blood-feud for the joy unborn, 
Slain in the womb by gods and men: 
I mourn him not, who know how great 
His sin of separateness and scorn; 
I wish he could be born again, 
To think of hands as well as wings, 
To walk the way of earthbound things; 
Think less of getting, more of giving; 
In short, to learn the art of living.
Pitter’s insights into Orwell’s character, both his capacity for joy and wonder, especially at the natural world, are always counter-balanced with something darker. She felt “his nature was divided” and that “there was something like a high wall right across the middle of it. A high wall with flowers and fruit and running water on one side, and the desert on the other”:
<blockquote>He felt the loveliness of life so keenly that he couldn’t endure the evils which are always denying and frustrating it, and he was sorely bewildered. He didn’t really know where to place the blame, for the idea of original sin was unacceptable to him and he hadn’t got around yet to considering misfortune as a discipline or charity as a duty. His attitude was really very like Thomas Hardy’s, I think—only more militant—an honourable nineteenth-century skepticism and pessimism.</blockquote>
There are several clues in the poem that she is alluding to Orwell. Pitter had experienced firsthand Orwell’s love of birds when they spent time exploring Hainault Forest and the opening line, “A bird, the master of the air” is a little reminiscent of her oft-quoted description of his literary talent – “master of English prose”! References to “gimcrack carcase” and “his breast/ Like a thin box of some frail wood” conjure frailty. “Each day he lost a little shine” also fits with Pitter’s other commentary about how Orwell was “considered detrimental by many people when we knew him”.
Don W. King speculated that “The Crow” was about Pitter’s father, also named George, whose “socialist principles were sickened by the poverty and misery he saw in the lives of the elementary school children he taught”. It seems unlikely that Pitter would introduce her father into the poem with the line, “I knew a man, I knew a man”.
How then do we know that “Eros with Chilblains” and “The Crow” were written with Orwell in mind? Quite simply, Ruth Pitter told Thomas McKean this was the case when he interviewed her during the mid-1980s!
It is arguable, the more closely one examines Orwell’s reviews of Pitter’s poetry which appeared in The Adelphi, that he may have known she had written “Eros with Chilblains”, even though it was not published during her lifetime. The odd reference to “bunions” in his flattering review of The Spirit Watches (from February, 1940) is worthy of note:
<blockquote>Perhaps it is the function of poetry to take us to places where bunions have no existence—or perhaps it isn’t. Miss Pitter obviously believes that it is, and as her belief is genuine and her ear exceptionally good, she continues to produce poems which reverberate quietly in one’s memory instead of making tremendous effect for five minutes and then being forgotten.</blockquote>
The line, “But does not mourn for at his death” may have been one that Pitter remembered when she attended Orwell’s funeral service in 1950:
<blockquote>Today I went to the funeral service for “George Orwell”. I have known him & his family for almost 30 years. He was a very interesting but I think ill-fated man. At the time of his death he had been writing for 21 years. Most of that was struggling against poverty & illness… I really feel quite oppressed with grief about it: I didn’t know I could still feel so much: I thought I’d got corny. For years past I’ve always said “I don’t mind people dying, if it amuses them. It’s the ones who won’t die that get my goat.” But I minded this death.</blockquote>
REFERENCES
King, Don W., Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter, The Kent State University Press, 2008
McKean, Thomas, A Conversation with Ruth Pitter, Glenrothes: HappenStance, 2010
Orwell, George, Review: “The Spirit Watches”, The Adelphi, February 1940
Pitter, Ruth, First Poems, London: Cecil Palmer, 1920
Pitter, Ruth, The Bridge: Poems 1939-1944, London: The Cresset Press, 1945
Pitter, Ruth, Ruth Pitter’s Personal Memories of George Orwell, Transcript, London Calling Asia, BBC Radio, 3 September, 1956
Pitter, Ruth, The Letters of Ruth Pitter: Silent Music, King, Don W. (ed.) Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2014
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
<a href="https://www.thomasmckean.net/about">Thomas McKean</a> generously shared his time and recollections of the summers he spent visiting and interviewing Ruth Pitter. His insights have deepened my understanding of the poet and Ruth’s relationships with her family, Orwell and C.S. Lewis. Pitter revealed to Thomas that Orwell was “The Crow”. Thank you, Thomas!
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<pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2024 13:44:50 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Burma Sahib: A Personal (Re)View]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXUik_DpfZNwqYvmyuk5fxzE</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/C3Cn2xXzpI0ZyaRORR1Bwsb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Burma Sahib: A Personal (Re)View" title="Burma Sahib: A Personal (Re)View"> It was with great expectation that I sat down to read Paul Theroux’s latest novel, Burma Sahib, the story of Eric Blair’s experience as a colonial policeman during the 1920s. A much experienced and admired master of the art of travel writing, who better to breathe life into the historical setting, landscape and people of the period? Considering his formative experiences, including working as a volunteer with the Peace Corps, in post-colonial Africa during the 1960s, Theroux seemed uniquely positioned for the job. He too had been determined to become a novelist and George Orwell had been his literary model from the beginning. Blair, fresh from Eton and temperamentally unsuited to his chosen career in the service of the British empire, was in good hands it seemed.
The late Hilary Mantel said that authors writing historical fiction “should seek out inconsistencies and gaps” and “make creative use of them”. How does Paul Theroux’s Burma Sahib satisfy her criteria?
You can read <a href="https://orwellsociety.com/burma-sahib-a-personal-review/">my review at The Orwell Society</a> website.
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<pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2024 01:52:29 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell’s Scottish Ancestry]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXWWL8iB042OaRKeetMRuZbW</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/IcP8J5kv7QKG0nyQPauP5Mb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell’s Scottish Ancestry" title="Orwell’s Scottish Ancestry"> <h2>“… sufficient evidence remains to be able to assert with confidence that Orwell was in male line descent from Alexander de Blair who flourished in the first half of the 13th century.” 
 Gordon MacGregor (email correspondence)</h2>
Five years ago I first wrote about Orwell’s Scottish ancestry and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44699671/Orwell_s_Scottish_Ancestry_and_Slavery">subsequently published it formally</a> (2020) in <a href="http://www.abramis.co.uk/george-orwell-studies/issues.htm">George Orwell Studies journal</a>. The paper cited extensive sources which revealed the Blair family had been deeply-involved in the slave trade two generations earlier than previously thought and were active members of the colonial political class in Jamaica.
Since then, convincing evidence has become available which pushes Orwell’s Blair family lineage back several hundred years. Gordon MacGregor’s <a href="https://redbookofscotland.co.uk/about-red-book-of-scotland">The Red Book of Scotland</a> has justly been described as an “ambitious…genealogical blockbuster”. His meticulous archival research has made it possible to trace George Orwell’s Scottish ancestry back to the early thirteenth century – and perhaps beyond.
In my original research paper, the focus was firmly centred on Orwell’s earliest confirmed Scottish ancestor, his great-great-great-great-grandfather – the slave-owning, colonial politician – Colonel John Blair (1668-1728). There were snippets of information about his father being Andrew Blair but I decided to stay in the realm of verifiable evidence.
The Red Book of Scotland lists Andrew Blair of Inchyra (1641-1699), the second son of Thomas Blair of Balthayock (1619-1652), as John Blair’s father. This linked the Inchyra Blairs to the <a href="https://blairsociety.org/history.html">Balthayock clan</a>, whose genealogy is well-established. The first known primary source documents for that family date from the the reign of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Lion">King William (c. 1142-1214)</a> when Stephan de Blar, the son of Vallenus, granted land in the parish of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blairgowrie_and_Rattray">Blairgowrie </a>to the monks of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupar_Angus_Abbey">Coupar Angus Abbey</a>. His successor, probably his son, was Alexander de Blair.
<figure id="attachment_27372" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27372" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-27372" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/William_Lion_OF_Scotland_I.jpg?resize=411%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="411" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/William_Lion_OF_Scotland_I.jpg?resize=411%2C500&ssl=1 411w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/William_Lion_OF_Scotland_I.jpg?w=544&ssl=1 544w" sizes="(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27372" class="wp-caption-text">King William (c. 1142-1214)</figcaption></figure>
I traced Eric Blair’s paternal line, making a list as part of my process for trying to work it all out – and contacted Gordon MacGregor. He responded generously and double-checked my interpretation of his genealogical tables. He agreed that we can say, “with confidence” that Alexander de Blair and, “on a balance of probability, it seems very likely,” Stephan de Blar were Eric Arthur Blair’s direct paternal ancestors:
<blockquote>“On the matter of Alexander de Blair being the son of Stephen de Blar/Blair, or at least in descent from him, on a balance of probability, it seems very likely, however, even if that were to be disregarded, sufficient evidence remains to be able to assert with confidence that Orwell was in male line descent from Alexander de Blair who flourished in the first half of the 13th century.”</blockquote>
It was awesome to track through the generations that preceded Eric Blair, marvelling at MacGregor’s methodical scholarship in assembling such disparate sources. If you are keen, the updated, searchable fourth edition (2023) pertinent to the Blair surname may be purchased <a href="https://tannerritchie.com/redbook/?sid=834/">here</a>. It is quite a treat to see a little about the lives of these ancestors. It is also worth getting hold of the difficult to obtain, The Blairs of Balthayock and their Cadets, 1150–1180.
<h2>A Brief Recap of the Biographies</h2>
How far can any biography explore genealogy? One imagine readers skipping those pages or chapter at the beginning of a book unless it has some greater connection to the subject.
The biographies of Orwell – probably due to page limits and the time-consuming nature of original research – have little to say about Orwell’s ancestors and are riddled with errors. The genealogical story always commences with Charles Blair (1743-1802) which has become a biographical trope badly in need of an update.
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/25/homage-stansky-abrahams-orwells-first-biographers/">The Unknown Orwell (1972)</a> by Peter Stansky and William Abrahams, provided a clue which led me to research the Scottish “Darien Scheme”:
<blockquote>“Charles Blair, his great-great-grandfather, who was born in 1743 and died in 1802, was a man of considerable wealth, the owner (we learn from his will) of “Estates, Plantations, Messuages, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments … in the Island of Jamaica,” as well as ““Negro, Mulatto and other Slaves”. It would appear that his fortune was increased when he married Lady Mary Fane, the second daughter of Thomas, eighth Earl of Westmorland, for there is a record of an exchange of deeds between his father-in-law and himself in 1765 in Jamaica. (Blairs, probably of the same family, had been prominent in Jamaica since the early eighteenth century; they might also have been associated with the abortive Scottish Darien scheme in Panama of 1698.)”</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_23812" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23812" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-23812 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds.jpeg?resize=500%2C356&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="356" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=500%2C356&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C570&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C547&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1094&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1458&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23812" class="wp-caption-text">The Honorable Henry Fane with Inigo Jones and Charles Blair by Sir Joshua Reynolds c. 1766</figcaption></figure>
Bernard Crick, whose entry on Orwell, in the <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31915">Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</a>, really needs updating, has the dates wrong (and this error remains in place at the ODNB entry and the second edition of the biography):
<blockquote>“Life had not dealt Richard Blair, as he might have put it, particularly good cards. His great-grandfather Charles Blair (1743-1820) had been a rich man, an owner of plantations and slaves in Jamaica, who had married into the aristocracy; but his fortune had dwindled away by the time his tenth and last son was born. “</blockquote>
Jeffrey Meyers wrote in 2000:
<blockquote>“Orwell’s family, who originally came from Scotland, had colonial connections that went back to the eighteenth century. His great-great-grandfather, Charles Blair of Winterborne, Dorset, was the absentee owner of tropical plantations and wretched slaves in Jamaica. His great wealth enabled him to ally himself with the aristocracy and marry Lady Mary Fane, daughter of the 8th Earl of Westmorland, a Bristol merchant who’d inherited the title from a second cousin at the age of sixty-two.”</blockquote>
Gordon Bowker, in 2003:
<blockquote>“Charles Blair, Eric’s great-grandfather, was born in 1743, probably of Scottish ancestry. By way of Jamaican sugar plantations and the slave trade he became sufficiently prosperous to be an acceptable husband for Lady Mary Fane, youngest daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland, to whom he was married in 1765.”</blockquote>
D.J. Taylor, in 2003, wrote:
<blockquote>Each of the descendants of Charles Blair (1743–1801), who married the daughter of the Fane Earl of Westmorland, was somehow less distinguished than his immediate predecessor. The family fortunes, built on the now decaying Jamaican sugar and slave trades, were sharply diminished.”</blockquote>
D.J. Taylor, in 2023 wrote”
<blockquote>“The Blairs were descendants of Charles Blair (1743–1801), who, having built up a fortune in the Jamaican sugar and slave trades, took steps to enhance the family’s social position by marrying his son Thomas to the daughter of the eighth Earl of Westmorland.”</blockquote>
Michael Shelden (1991) did not mention Charles Blair, nor did Robert Colls (2013) but he does say Orwell’s “great-great grandfather had been a slave-owner in Jamaica”.
<h2>John Blair</h2>
The narrative pertaining to Orwell’s Blair ancestors genuinely needs be updatin. There is no need to track the family back to Vallenus, Stephan or even Alexander de Blair but the life of Colonel John Blair (1668-1728) is an important part of the story of Orwell’s family deserving wider recognition. If you do not have time to read my <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44699671/Orwell_s_Scottish_Ancestry_and_Slavery">research </a>from 2020, I have summarised, removing the extensive referencing for readability (but you can check out the sources <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/11/17/orwells-scottish-ancestry-slavery-2/">here </a>or <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44699671/Orwell_s_Scottish_Ancestry_and_Slavery">here</a>).
Orwell’s earliest confirmed Blair ancestor, his great-great-great-great-grandfather Colonel John Blair (1668-1728), was a survivor of the ‘Darien scheme’ that so disastrously failed in the late-1690s. The Scottish parliament had endeavoured to establish a Central American colony at the Isthmus of Darien (Panama) – a foolishly optimistic plan, disproportionate to the size of the Scottish economy – involving an attack on the Spanish at a time when England was at peace. King William III ordered a boycott of the struggling colony which, as a result, soon foundered disastrously. Seven months after arriving in 1698, four hundred Scottish settlers were dead. The collapse of the colony in 1699 brought Scotland, already suffering from harvest failures, to the verge of financial collapse.
‘The Honourable Colonel John Blair’ was ‘a surgeon’ and ‘one of the Scotch colonists of Darien’. In 1701, this ‘survivor of Darien’, was elected as a member of the House of Assembly of Jamaica for St. Thomas in the East and was to ‘fill many other offices of trust’ in the years that followed. He represented St Catherine, St George and Port Royal and was considered a ‘major slave-owner in Jamaica’. Blair was appointed to be the Speaker of the House of Assembly in 1715. State papers show he was allied, or friends with other planters and politicians, including John Ayscough who served in the 1720s as President of the Council, Chief Justice and also Governor of Jamaica. The Ayscough clan were one of ‘the most noted families in Jamaica history’. Blair’s son, also named John (1712-1742), married Mary Ayscough.
On his death in 1728, the elder Blair owned 419 slaves of whom 221 were male and 198 female; 63 were children. The total value of his estate at probate: £22036.07 in Jamaican currency of which £10173.5 was the estimated value of the enslaved people. Blair was interred, along with his young second wife Elizabeth Blair (1694-1721) and other members of his family at Saint Jago de la Vega Cathedral in Spanish Town in 1728. Inscribed on the family tomb:
<blockquote>Here Lyes Interr’d the Body of ELIZABETH the late wife of JOHN BLAIR ESQ’R who departed this Life the 7th of Fber 1721, Aged TWENTY SEVEN YEARS. Likewise their Four Children JOHN, THOMAS, CHRISTIAN, and MARY. (HERE) also Lieth Interr’d ye Body of the Hon’ble JOHN BLAIR. 27th day of June 1728. Aged 60 Years (Scooter 2014).</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_27379" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27379" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/48110330"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-27379 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/130932389_1402017923.webp?resize=500%2C325&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="325" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/130932389_1402017923.webp?resize=500%2C325&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/130932389_1402017923.webp?resize=800%2C520&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/130932389_1402017923.webp?resize=768%2C499&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/130932389_1402017923.webp?w=826&ssl=1 826w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27379" class="wp-caption-text">Image courtesy of Find-a-Grave</figcaption></figure>
His son, John Blair (1712-1742), by the time he was buried in the same cathedral, had amassed an even greater fortune and much more property. The ‘Jamaican Quit Rent books’ and probate records reveal that his son Charles (1743–1802), the first Blair mentioned in biographies of Orwell, would inherit vast tracts of land and hundreds of slaves:
<blockquote>… 150 acres of land in St Catherine, 930 acres in St Thomas-in-the-East, 500 acres in St Ann, 300 acres in Clarendon and 1020 acres in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, total 2900 acres … Slave-ownership at probate: 392 of whom 211 were listed as male and 181 as female. 0 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £20342.91 Jamaican currency of which £12269 currency was the value of enslaved people.</blockquote>
It is significant that Charles, who was born after his father’s death, probably returned to Dorset in England, rather than Scotland where his grandfather was born. Charles’s mother, Mary Ayscough, was connected to the Fane and Michel families, slave-owners who also had addresses in ‘Wessex’. Her husband had died aged 26 and the young mother had an unborn infant to raise. There was certainly enough money to live more than comfortably back in England. Her son, Charles, was later to marry into the politically well-connected Fane family and reside at Down House, in Dorset.
The ‘parish’ was a Jamaican administrative unit in use from 1655. Blair plantations were extensive and located in many parishes including Saint Thomas-in-the-Vale, Clarendon, Saint-Thomas-in-the-East, Saint Ann, and St Catherine. One smaller property, Blairs Pen, was used for ‘livestock’. It was about 200 acres and was more likely used for cattle than slaves. Records showed that other slave-owning families – the Sinclairs, Michels and Fanes – managed the Blair family estates and finances while he was a minor and that for almost a century Orwell’s ancestors were absentee landlords.
<figure id="attachment_16168" class="wp-caption aligncenter" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16168"><a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2019/06/23/orwells-scottish-ancestry-slavery/screen-shot-2019-06-23-at-4-03-24-pm/" rel="attachment wp-att-16168"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-16168" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-23-at-4.03.24-pm.png?resize=1024%2C441&ssl=1" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-23-at-4.03.24-pm.png?resize=1024%2C441&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-23-at-4.03.24-pm.png?resize=300%2C129&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-23-at-4.03.24-pm.png?resize=768%2C331&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-23-at-4.03.24-pm.png?w=1714&ssl=1 1714w" alt="Parishes in Jamaica 1723-1769 when Charles Blair (b 1743) inherited slaves and plantations" width="1024" height="441" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16168" class="wp-caption-text">Parishes in Jamaica 1723-1769 when Charles Blair (b 1743) inherited slaves and plantations</figcaption></figure>
Jamaicans commonly have Scottish surnames at a higher rate than any other country outside of Scotland. There are more ‘Campbells’ per acre in Jamaica than in Scotland.
The Blair family, like so many other Scots, prospered due to the incredible profitability of these Jamaican plantations that supplied rum, sugar, cattle and sheep. It is worth remembering that Orwell’s father was born during 1857, into declining circumstances, due to the loss of revenue that followed the abolition of slavery.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Sadly, from my point of view, this research has not been employed in the most recent biographical work on Orwell. Objectively, it is more than just extremely historically topical in the post-colonial studies that dominate the field but contextually relevant to the story of Orwell, the great anti-imperialist who never mentions his family history in the slave or opium trades.
My hope is that this renewed effort, to share the Blair family ancestry, will lead to the slave-owning, colonial politician, Colonel John Blair finding his way into future narratives about George Orwell.
REFERENCES
Bowker, Gordon (2004 [2003]) George Orwell, London: Abacus
Colls, Robert (2013) George Orwell: English Rebel, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Crick, Bernard (1992 [1980]) George Orwell: A Life, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, second edition
Dobson, David (2011) Scots in Jamaica, 1655-1855, Baltimore: Clearfield
Groome, Anne, Blair, Jack and McCullough, Noel Blair, The Blairs of Balthayock and their Cadets, 1150–1180, New Jersey: Clan Blair Society, 2001
Hall, Catherine, Draper, Nicholas, McClelland, Keith, Donington, Katie and Lang, Rachel (2014) Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Kindle edition
MacGregor, Gordon, <a href="https://tannerritchie.com/redbook/?sid=834/">The Red Book of Scotland – Volume 2: Bai-Bru</a>, 2023
MacGregor, Gordon, Email Correspondence, 21-22nd January, 2024
Meyers, Jeffrey (2000) Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Moore, Darcy (2020) “Orwell’s Scottish Ancestry and Slavery”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 5, No. 1 pp. 6-19
Moore, Darcy (2019) Orwell’s Scottish ancestry & slavery, Darcy Moore’s Blog. Available online at https://www.darcymoore.net/2019/06/23/orwells-scottish-ancestry-slavery/, accessed on 6 September 2020
Prebble, John (1970) The Darien Disaster, London: Penguin
Shelden, Michael (1991) Orwell: The Authorised Biography, London: Heinemann
Stansky, Peter and Abrahams, William (1972) The Unknown Orwell, New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Taylor, D. J. (2004) Orwell – The Life, London: Vintage
Taylor, D.J., Orwell – The New Life, London: Constable, 2023
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<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:19:06 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Lost Orwell BBC Radio Transcript Found in India]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXW8GXRP-9YPP0QqW5gBv7mX</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/kgLM_kcHLZiG0nyQPauP5Mb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Lost Orwell BBC Radio Transcript Found in India" title="Lost Orwell BBC Radio Transcript Found in India"> <h2>George Orwell was employed in the <a href="https://www5.open.ac.uk/research-projects/making-britain/content/bbc-indian-section-eastern-service">Indian Section</a> of the <a href="https://www5.open.ac.uk/research-projects/making-britain/content/bbc-indian-section-eastern-service">BBC’s Eastern Service</a> during World War Two but no recording of his voice has survived. A cache of his BBC radio scripts was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/12/arts/orwell-radio-scripts-and-letters-found.html">discovered </a>forty years ago – but many are still lost. </h2>
My lengthy list of ideas to pursue, people and sites to visit – including archives and libraries – was never going to be ticked-off in one six-week research trip to India. Gaining a deeper understanding of Orwell’s complex relationship with his <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/24/review-orwell-and-empire-by-douglas-kerr/">Anglo-Indian family identity</a> by locating primary sources at regional archives and learning from local historians in Motihari (where he was born) and in Nainital (where his parents married) kept me busy for most of the time.
Besides finding out more more about <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">Orwell’s parents</a> and his extended family who had lived and worked in India, there were many other incidental byways to be explored. Some may be considered a little unlikely or even quixotic – but nevertheless were important by my estimation. Could <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/01/24/orwells-ayah/">Orwell’s ayah</a> be identified – or was this unknown woman truly lost to history? Did Orwell’s mother leave India with her children after <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/07/23/orwells-rats/">her son was bitten</a> in his cot by a rat?
On the last full-day researching in the archives, one of these longer research shots – pertaining to Orwell’s many Indian colleagues at the BBC – hit an unlikely bullseye.
Although many radio scripts from the 1940s have been lost, there is an almost complete record of “Programmes as Broadcast” (PasB) which provides an invaluable inventory of what was transmitted. It occurred to me some time ago that Orwell’s guests and co-workers may have kept copies of the missing radio scripts. Possibly his long-dead colleagues had bequeathed literary estates to relatives or state institutions that contained these lost programmes or letters.
<figure id="attachment_23603" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23603" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="wp-image-23603 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BBC-1942.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="450" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BBC-1942.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BBC-1942.jpeg?resize=500%2C281&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BBC-1942.jpeg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BBC-1942.jpeg?w=1456&ssl=1 1456w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23603" class="wp-caption-text">L–R seated: Venu Chitale, M. J. Tambimuttu, T. S. Eliot, Una Marson, Mulk Raj Anand, Christopher Pemberton & Narayana Menon. Standing L–R: Orwell, Nancy Parratt & William Empson</figcaption></figure>
The late Peter Davison, who edited <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/19/a-tribute-to-professor-peter-davison/">The Complete Works of George Orwell</a>, noted a PasB record for a programme broadcast on the 15th January 1942 which had not survived: “The Meaning of Scorched Earth” written by E. Blair and read by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balraj_Sahni">Balraj Sahni (1913-1973)</a>.
There was a small lead contained in a letter to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulk_Raj_Anand">Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004)</a>, written shortly afterwards, on the 27 February 1942 and signed “Eric Blair”, which indicated that Orwell posted exemplar transcripts of BBC broadcasts to prospective speakers as “guidance copies”:
Dear Anand, 
I wonder if you would like to do a series of talks on Sundays, which 
would mean recording the talks normally on Fridays? I recently wrote myself two talks explaining what is meant by scorched earth and by sabotage, and it afterwards occurred to me that as we have about five Sundays vacant, we might have a series, discussing similar phrases which have passed into general usage in the last year or two, and are flung to and fro in newspaper articles, broadcasts and so forth, without necessarily being well understood.
I would like you, if you would, to do these talks, starting with one on the phrase Fifth Column, and following up with talks discussing propaganda, living space, new order, pluto-democracy, racialism, and so on. I am sending you as a sort of guidance copies of the first two talks I did. You will see from these that our idea is to make these catch-phrases more intelligible, and at the same time, of course, to do a bit of anti-Fascist propaganda. Could you let me know pretty soon whether this would interest you?
Yours 
Eric Blair 
Talks Assistant 
Indian Section
The National Archives of India in New Delhi is home to a large collection of Mulk Raj Anand’s private papers. Could these transcripts be located among the writer’s literary estate? It was worth an hour or two of precious archival time to see what was still extant.
Eureka!
The pages were fragile, frayed and browning, a few words were illegible and it was slightly truncated – but the “guidance” copy Orwell had slipped into an envelope over 80 years ago had survived!
I excitedly read, photographed, endeavoured to faithfully copy the text without correcting typos, counted word length and considered the broadcast time, comparing it with other scripts. It seemed complete, except for the last few words, or possibly paragraphs which may have been on a discarded third page.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/img_5490-2/'><img decoding="async" width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IMG_5490-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/meaning-of-scorched-earth-2-black/'><img decoding="async" width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Meaning-of-Scorched-Earth-2-black-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<pre style="text-align: left;">AS BROADCAST: 15TH January 1942, 15.00-15.12 GMT. Eastern T [illegible]
“THROUGH EASTERN EYES” - “THE MEANING OF SCORCHED EARTH”
by George Orwell</pre>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/transcript-1/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1396" height="2236" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?fit=1396%2C2236&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?w=1396&ssl=1 1396w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?resize=312%2C500&ssl=1 312w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?resize=499%2C800&ssl=1 499w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?resize=768%2C1230&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?resize=959%2C1536&ssl=1 959w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transcript-1.png?resize=1279%2C2048&ssl=1 1279w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/transcript-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1396" height="2018" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?fit=1396%2C2018&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?w=1396&ssl=1 1396w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?resize=346%2C500&ssl=1 346w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?resize=553%2C800&ssl=1 553w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?resize=768%2C1110&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/transcript-2.png?resize=1063%2C1536&ssl=1 1063w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<h3>The Meaning of Scorched Earth</h3>
Anyone who listened to this broadcast in mid-January 1942 was thoroughly and rationally briefed about the concept of “scorched earth” across several theatres of war. The tone is appropriately dispassionate, as a police officer would report on the violent murder of a citizen in neutral, un-emotive language.
Orwell correctly identifies that the term “scorched earth” was first used in a report made during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) but it is odd he does not mention to his audience that this concept had been employed militarily since antiquity.
Did you notice, considering it was read aloud for radio, that Orwell erred a little – probably due to the hurly-burly of relentlessly having to prepare content for broadcast – in the first sentence of the second last paragraph by writing, “as I noted above” rather than something like, “as already mentioned”?
Life for Londoners like Orwell, living in the ruins of a city that had been blitzed by the Luftwaffe, was austere when “The Meaning of Scorched Earth” was broadcast. The German U-boats were menacing British convoys; the war in the North African desert was going poorly; the Germans were approaching Moscow; and, the number of loved ones lost on land, sea & air was mounting. There must have been some resurgence of hope that fascism would be defeated, considering the Americans had finally entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but life was grim.
Despite this cause for optimism, most must have realised it was going to be a long war and that the destruction wrought, in such a catastrophic and all-encompassing conflict, would make the peace a difficult one for citizens, especially those who had been displaced. The rationing and scarcity, so omnipresent in the bleak, war-ravaged world of Orwell’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) </a>was to be an ongoing, grim reality for countless millions across Europe and Asia after the war officially ended.
In the month after the broadcast, the impregnable British naval base at Singapore fell to the Japanese and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Australia">Battle for Australia </a>commenced. Few would have guessed the absolute horror that was to unfold before the war finally concluded.
There was the imminent psychological terror of V-1 flying bombs for Londoners and the catastrophic loss of life in the fire-bombing of Dresden for the Germans. Orwell, serving as a war correspondent, would see the death camps, before the newsreels publicly screened in the cinemas, the shocking enormity of Hitler’s, “Final Solution”. A terrifying new weapon of mass annihilation, chillingly demonstrated at Hiroshima on civilians, was soon to mark the beginning of a new epoch of human history in August, 1945.
Orwell was certainly not immune from the psychological impact of these horrors on his sense of optimism about what the future might hold. His mother died in 1943 and wife in 1945. Orwell now had the responsibility of raising a son in a world where “the atom bombs are piling up in the factories”. The bleak outlook that pervades Nineteen Eighty-Four is understandable, even without factoring in Orwell’s own worsening <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2019/06/09/orwells-streptomycin/">tubercular illness</a>.
Almost immediately, on reading the transcript, there was one line that struck me as embodying Orwell’s strange ability to write with completely convincing, grandiloquent authority, something which, when pulled-apart logically is completely dubious:
“To carry out the scorched earth policy implies that you know what you are fighting for, that you care more for liberty than for profits.”
Orwell’s analysis in mid-January 1942 – that any nation implementing a “scorched earth” policy had a genuine commitment to “liberty” over “profits” – was not a belief he sustained while drafting Nineteen Eighty-Four in the years following the Second World War. The war against German fascism had been won but the creeping threat of totalitarianism and the mind-boggling scope of the destruction during the last few years would not permit any rational acceptance that a scorched earth policy was any longer about “liberty”.
It seems worth taking a moment to reflect on the evolution of Orwell’s thinking from this radio broadcast in early-1942. The experience of broadcasting wartime propaganda – although he felt he made “slightly less disgusting than it might otherwise have been” – significantly influenced his last novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
It is not hard to imagine Winston Smith, the protagonist, writing in his diary an analysis of Oceania’s scorched earth policy in their unending wars with Eurasia or Eastasia. The evolution of Orwell’s thinking on this matter is discernible in Emmanuel Goldstein’s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Oligarchical_Collectivism">The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, </a>the political tract within the novel which purports to analyse the function of war in that totalitarian state:
<blockquote>“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”</blockquote>
Orwell, the writer, ultimately placed his faith in the primacy of language, not weapons or planned destruction, for fighting totalitarianism and ensuring liberty. This is evident throughout his major postwar essays and in the appendix, The Principles of Newspeak, which concludes his final novel. Orwell’s core message: resist organised impingement on the individual’s liberty by any group – religious, political or artistic – who believed in “concealing or preventing thought”!
<h2>Mulk Raj Anand & Balraj Sahni</h2>
Mr. Anand is one of the small group of Indian writers who prefers to write in English, and whose appearance during the past twenty years marks an important turning-point in Anglo-Indian relations. George Orwell, Manchester Evening News, 9 August 1945
There was a second transcript in Anand’s private papers at this same archive; one that had not been lost. “The Meaning of Sabotage”, also mentioned in Orwell’s letter to Anand, was broadcast on 29 January, 1942. No other BBC transcripts could be located amongst his papers (although there may be more) which appears to confirm my theory that these are the transcripts mailed by Orwell.
This second talk was also read by Balraj Sahni (and censored by R. C. Hardman). This copy seems to be a little different from the one Davison mentions in his notes as having “a few amendments in Orwell’s hand and at the head of the first page” with the handwritten annotation: “As broadcast. 10 mins 10 secs”.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/sabotage-1/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3024" height="4032" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?fit=3024%2C4032&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?w=3024&ssl=1 3024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-1.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/sabotage-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3024" height="4032" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?fit=3024%2C4032&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?w=3024&ssl=1 3024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sabotage-2.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Mulk Raj Anand and Balraj Sahni ‘s relationships with Orwell are contextually interesting and worthy of further consideration.
Anand, born in the Punjabi city of Peshawar, had his talent nurtured in England. He first visited London courtesy of a scholarship awarded on the silver wedding anniversary of George V and Queen Mary in the 1920s. During these four years he embraced left wing politics and the Indian independence movement. He joined a Marxist study group conducted by a trade union and was to become a lifelong socialist. He was a successful student and this first experience of England culminated in the award of a doctorate in philosophy from University College London.
Anand returned to India in 1929 and cleaned latrines for three weeks at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarmati_Ashram">Gandhi’s ashram</a> in Ahmadabad. He was criticised by Gandhi for his Anglicised clothing and appearance. Anand also had the opportunity to attend a session of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Congress">Indian National Congress</a> held in Lahore.
<figure id="attachment_26583" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26583" style="width: 350px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-26583 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mulk-Raj-Anand.jpg?resize=350%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="350" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mulk-Raj-Anand.jpg?resize=350%2C500&ssl=1 350w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mulk-Raj-Anand.jpg?w=560&ssl=1 560w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26583" class="wp-caption-text">Mulk Raj Anand in the 1930s © National Portrait Gallery, London</figcaption></figure>
On returning to England he was befriended by Virginia and Leonard Woolf who organised employment for the young writer at their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogarth_Press">Hogarth Press</a>. T. S. Eliot published his work in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Criterion">The Criterion </a>and Anand rubbed shoulders with many literary luminaries of his age, including D. H. Lawrence, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw.
E. M. Forster was Anand’s most influential early advocate, assisting with the publication of his first novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchable_(novel)">Untouchable (1935)</a>. Forster <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.268642/page/n1/mode/2up">wrote the preface</a>. Reputedly, the novel had been rejected nineteen times by publishers. <a href="https://literarism.blogspot.com/2013/10/">Many </a>of Anand’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/anglophile-took-gandhis-advice-20041002-gdjuh9.html">obituarists recount an anecdote about Gandhi </a>providing feedback on an early draft of the novel which led to Anand making significant changes:
<blockquote>“Your untouchables sound too much like Bloomsbury intellectuals. You know an untouchable boy wouldn’t talk in those long sentences”. </blockquote>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/daoipal-3/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="549" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?fit=549%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?w=1406&ssl=1 1406w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?resize=343%2C500&ssl=1 343w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?resize=549%2C800&ssl=1 549w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?resize=768%2C1119&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/daoipal.png?resize=1055%2C1536&ssl=1 1055w" sizes="(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/untouchable/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?resize=768%2C1023&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Untouchable.png?resize=1153%2C1536&ssl=1 1153w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
Orwell was also a strong advocate, recruiting Anand to work at the BBC on a range of programmes that were never likely to find much of an audience. He suggested the title for Anand’s 1942 novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_and_the_Sickle">The Sword and the Sickle</a>, and reviewed it positively. Orwell also wrote to the Times Literary Supplement objecting to unfair reviews of Anand’s work.
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/24/review-orwell-and-empire-by-douglas-kerr/">Douglas Kerr has pointed out</a> that “Anand was an anti-imperialist, a socialist, and an Indian nationalist. This was tricky for Orwell, who was highly suspicious of nationalism. But he defended Anand from charges of being anti-British and unfriendly to Anglo-Indians in his writing”.
Orwell always recognised Anand’s literary importance but a note in his wartime diary (on the 3rd April 1942) is an important clue as to why Orwell was such an advocate during the early years of the war against Hitler. Orwell appreciated that this ardent Indian nationalist and anti-imperialist was “genuinely anti-Fascist, and has done violence to his feelings, and probably to his reputation, by backing Britain up because he recognises that Britain is objectively on the anti-Fascist side”. He was in the same situation himself.
Eric Blair, who broadcast by agreement with the BBC under his pseudonym George Orwell, was conscious of potential damage to his own credibility. Ethically, he felt that defeating Hitler was more important than pursuing “one’s own revolution”. Orwell knew he was being “used by the British governing class” to broadcast propaganda to India and wrote to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Woodcock">a friend</a> explaining his position, that “one can’t effectively remain outside the war & by working inside an institution like the BBC one can perhaps deodorise it to some small extent”.
Balraj Sahni was already working as an Indian Programme Assistant when Orwell joined the BBC in 1941. He had been educated at Harvard and knew Gandhi well, having lived with him for a year at an ashram during the late 1930s. This is where he met the Eton-educated Lionel Fielden, who was <a href="https://www.davuniversity.org/images/files/study-material/History%20of%20AIR.pdf">the director of All India Radio (AIR) in Delhi</a>. Fielden, who Orwell detested (which is a fascinating tale but outside the scope of this piece) recruited Sahni to join the BBC’s Hindi service in London during 1939 where he was soon broadcasting propaganda to Indian soldiers.
Sahni’s son and brother wrote biographies which emphasise Balraj’s flamboyant non-conformity:
<blockquote>“He was unlike anyone else in the family. Influenced by the Romantic poets, he was a swash-buckling adventurer always looking for and taking on dangerous new challenges. He was a non-conformist and not one to pursue traditional lines of work … Dad was ‘independent and impetuous by nature’ and would ‘do things that were off the beaten track’. ‘Nothing risked, nothing gained’ was his motto all his life.”</blockquote>
Orwell was very active in supporting his friend professionally. He introduced Sahni and his talented wife Damyanti (pronounced Dammo-ji) to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Marshall_(theatre_director)">Norman Marshall</a> and organised for them to collaborate on “Let’s Act It Ourselves”, a programme of discussions on dramatic presentation. Marshall, another non-conformist, was the owner of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_Theatre_Studio">Gate Theatre Studio</a> and a champion of what he called “the non-commercial theatre”. He developed expertise in avoiding the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chamberlain">Lord Chamberlain’s censorship </a>rules by ensuring the audience were paid members of a theatre club.
<figure id="attachment_26582" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26582" style="width: 443px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-26582" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Damyanti-and-Balraj-Sahni-at-the-BBC-c.-1941.png?resize=443%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="443" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Damyanti-and-Balraj-Sahni-at-the-BBC-c.-1941.png?resize=443%2C500&ssl=1 443w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Damyanti-and-Balraj-Sahni-at-the-BBC-c.-1941.png?resize=708%2C800&ssl=1 708w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Damyanti-and-Balraj-Sahni-at-the-BBC-c.-1941.png?resize=768%2C867&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Damyanti-and-Balraj-Sahni-at-the-BBC-c.-1941.png?w=1068&ssl=1 1068w" sizes="(max-width: 443px) 100vw, 443px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26582" class="wp-caption-text">Damyanti and Balraj Sahni at the BBC c. 1941</figcaption></figure>
Orwell’s personal and professional networks were extensive and not always in plain sight. It is possible that Orwell knew Marshall via his aunt, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">Nellie Limouzin</a>. She was an actress and had been a significant source of information for her nephew’s first professionally published article, about censorship in England, “La Censure en Angleterre”.
Anand was later to have the melancholy task of telling Sahni that Orwell’s wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, had died in late March 1945. Sahni wrote to Orwell fondly and compassionately:
<blockquote>“…you endeared yourselves to us greatly, through your work and your sincerity. This news has made us very sad indeed”.</blockquote>
Sahni was to become an accomplished film actor and director in India. Principled, and revered for his portrayals of the underprivileged, Sahni was a leading star during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_cinema">the Golden Age of Indian cinema</a>. He also experienced the grief of losing his wife. Damyanti Sahni died unexpectedly in 1947.
Both Anand and Sahni were likely sources of up-to-date information about Gandhi. Peter Davison’s speculations regarding the extent to which Sahni’s knowledge of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi">Mahātmā</a> influenced Orwell’s writings on Gandhi, especially the important essay written in 1949, the year after the Indian’s assassination, are worthy of further reflection.
<figure id="attachment_26581" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26581" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-26581" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Balraj_Sahni_2013_stamp_of_India.jpg?resize=500%2C371&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="371" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Balraj_Sahni_2013_stamp_of_India.jpg?resize=500%2C371&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Balraj_Sahni_2013_stamp_of_India.jpg?resize=800%2C593&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Balraj_Sahni_2013_stamp_of_India.jpg?resize=768%2C569&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Balraj_Sahni_2013_stamp_of_India.jpg?w=928&ssl=1 928w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26581" class="wp-caption-text">Sahni on a postage stamp of India (2013)</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Collaboration & Research Opportunities</h2>
There appeared to be vast swathes of Mulk Raj Anand’s literary estate left to catalogue in New Delhi. Anand had such a significant collaboration with Orwell at the BBC there could possibly be missing transcripts or letters to be discovered amongst these papers.
A knee-deep pile of folders – marked “photographs” – that I was not permitted to view needs further investigation. There may be images of the literary and BBC circles that Anand and Orwell shared. Shots, taken of Orwell during his BBC days, first appeared in the book, Talking to India (1943), which he edited and graces my bookshelf. It is possible that there were other photos taken during that shoot which did not make the cut but could be in those folders.
<figure id="attachment_16475" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16475" style="width: 450px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-16475" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?resize=450%2C674&ssl=1" alt="" width="450" height="674" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?w=634&ssl=1 634w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1 200w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16475" class="wp-caption-text">Talking to India; A Selection of English Language Broadcasts to India (1943)</figcaption></figure>
Please feel encouraged to make contact if you are planning to pursue research in the National Archives of India in New Delhi (or the state archives in Lucknow, Patna or Kolkata) as there are many leads to pursue. I am more than happy to help out with areas worthy of further investigation.
Who knows what treasures, hidden away in archives, are yet to be found!
<figure id="attachment_26475" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26475" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-26475" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Orwell-and-Anand-at-the-BBC-large.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="450" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Orwell-and-Anand-at-the-BBC-large.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Orwell-and-Anand-at-the-BBC-large.jpeg?resize=500%2C281&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Orwell-and-Anand-at-the-BBC-large.jpeg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Orwell-and-Anand-at-the-BBC-large.jpeg?w=976&ssl=1 976w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26475" class="wp-caption-text">From L-R: George Woodcock, Mulk Raj Anand, George Orwell, William Empson, Herbert Read & Edmund Blunden</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Reflections on the Transcript</h2>
How would you, with the considerable benefit of hindsight, evaluate Orwell’s commentary from 15th January 1942?
Please feel encouraged to post a comment below.
REFERENCES 
Anand, Mulk Raj, Untouchable, London: Penguin, 1940
Bluemel, Kristin, George Orwell and the Radical Eccentrics: Intermodernism in Literary London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Brander, Laurence, George Orwell, London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1954
Fielden, Lionel, The Natural Bent, London: Andre Deutsch, 1960
Kerr, Douglas, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/24/review-orwell-and-empire-by-douglas-kerr/">Orwell and Empire</a>, Oxford University Press, 2022
Marshall, Norman, The Other Theatre, John Lehmann, London, 1947
Niven, Alastair, <a href="https://doi-org.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/10.1093/ref:odnb/93854">Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004)</a>, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Orwell, George, “The Meaning of Scorched Earth”, BBC Eastern Service, 15th January, 1942 (courtesy of the National Archives, New Delhi)
Orwell, George, “The Meaning of Sabotage”, BBC Eastern Service, 29th January, 1942 (courtesy of the National Archives, New Delhi)
Orwell, George (ed.), Talking to India; A Selection of English Language Broadcasts to India, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd Book, 1943
Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 9, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Orwell, George, All Propaganda Is Lies: 1941–1942, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 13, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, Keeping Our Little Corner Clean: 1942–1943, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 14, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, I Belong to the Left: 1945, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 17, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, Smothered Under Journalism: 1946, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 18, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, It Is What I Think: 1947–1948, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 19, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, George Orwell: A Life in Letters, London: Harvill Secker, 2010
Sahni, Balraj, Balraj Sahni: An Autobiography, Hind Pocket Books, 1979
Sahni, Bhisham, Balraj Sahni: My Brother, National Book Trust, 2017
Sahni, Parikshat, The Non-Conformist: Memories of My Father Balraj Sahni, Penguin, 2019
<div class="csl-bib-body">
<div class="csl-entry" data-csl-entry-id="e6757b89-9dcd-3c80-a2dc-db771f221065">
West, W.J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Broadcasts, Duckworth & Co/BBC Books, 1985
West, W.J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Commentaries, Duckworth & Co/BBC Books, 1985
West, W.J., The Larger Evils: Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Truth Behind the Satire, Edinburgh: Canongate Press, 1992
Zivin, Joselyn, “‘Bent’: A Colonial Subversive and Indian Broadcasting.” Past & Present, no. 162, 1999, pp. 195–220
</div>
</div>
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
Thank you to the staff at the National Archives of India in New Delhi for their assistance. As ever, the <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/19/a-tribute-to-professor-peter-davison/">late Peter Davison</a>‘s research provided the information necessary to track down this lost transcript and to understand contextually Orwell’s relationship with Balraj Sahni and Mulk Raj Anand.
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<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2024 08:45:35 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell’s Family: Aunt Nellie]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXVmIlqXuaA5ZrDXWBZfdr71</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/GEyfdcA_VEvQ8Omcr5bux8b1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell’s Family: Aunt Nellie" title="Orwell’s Family: Aunt Nellie"> <h2>“Miss Elaine Limouzin’s recital at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salle_%C3%89rard">Salle Erard</a> on Thursday evening, May 4th, drew a large audience, which thoroughly appreciated the very agreeable entertainment… Miss Limouzin has an effective way of writing drolleries for herself, and her bright fun in telling one of her own pieces – “Henry Sees Life” – an account of a country boy’s first visit to the theatre with his more knowing Cockney friend – went with rare effect.”
 The Stage, 11th May, 1905</h2>
Orwell’s biographers have recognised that <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">Ellen Kate Limouzin</a> (1870-1950) was his favourite aunt, the most intellectual member of his immediate family, a “militant suffragette” and someone who introduced her nephew to the theatre, writers, editors and literary agents.
There is much more to Aunt Nellie aka Elaine Limouzin; E.K.L., Mrs Adam; and E. Limouzin than currently understood. As more detail is uncovered about her professional life, it is becoming evident that Nellie’s reputation needs to be re-positioned in the story of her nephew’ life.
It is important to understand that Bernard Crick’s widely-read biography of Orwell, first published in 1980, framed Aunt Nellie – and <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/04/18/orwell-newspeak-esperanto/">her Esperantist comrades</a> – as “crankish”. He posited that Orwell himself suppressed information about her for this reason, suggesting that “when George Orwell emerged from Eric Blair, he wore the clothes of common sense”.
This has become a trope in Orwell biography from which Nellie has never really recovered. Ellen Kate Limouzin is deserving of more consideration for her role in Orwell’s development but also, as an interesting figure in her own right.
Several years ago, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42790259/Orwells_Aunt_Nellie">my research</a> emphasised that Nellie, always an avid writer of letters to the editors of a wide-range of newspapers and journals, wrote articles in Esperanto, under the pseudonym, E.K.L. The process of archival digitisation meant that information revealing the extent to which she was committed to the values espoused by the suffragette movement – although scattered throughout disparate journals and newspapers – could be found more readily on the public record.
Nellie had a gift for recitation and public-speaking. She gave talks about being a “prisoner” as a result of her feminist beliefs and participation in political protests. She was an actress and many of her performances were in the radical theatre that challenged convention, for example, re-imagining social roles for men and women. She often recited poems and stories at suffragette meetings.
Most of this research was undertaken to deepen my understanding of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/62087811/The_True_Artist_Poverty_Networking_and_Literary_Artifice">the significance of Orwell’s time Paris</a>. I emphasised Aunt Nellie’s intellectual influence on Eric Blair’s first published article on censorship and that she lived with an important Esperantist, Eugène Adam, who wrote employing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Lanti">the pseudonym of Lanti</a>. My focus was largely on the political and ideological influence this had on Eric Blair – freshly-resigned from the Indian Imperial Police – and on <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/04/18/orwell-newspeak-esperanto/">Orwell’s creation of Newspeak</a>, in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The jigsaw pieces continue to be assembled and a picture is forming which strengthens any thesis that posits Limouzin’s influence on Orwell is more significant than previously suspected.
<h2>Nellie, the Activist</h2>
The network of Nellie’s connections – political, theatrical and literary – are <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/">becoming more visible</a>. She had friends and associates who can be identified as belonging to the British Esperanto Association (BEA), Independent Labour Party (I.L.P.) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Social_and_Political_Union">Women’s Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U.)</a>. It was not uncommon for members of the I.L.P. to be interested in both radical theatre and artificial languages. <a href="https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/bonhams-orwells-copy-keep-aspidistra-flying-presented-bookseller">Francis and Myfanwy Westrope</a>, friends of Nellie’s who employed Orwell at their London bookshop in the mid-1930s, were Esperantists and members of the I.L.P.. Another example, <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Pankhurst">Sylvia Pankhurst</a>, a founding member of the W.S.P.U. (it formed at the Pankhurst family home) was a particularly committed Esperantist and a member of the I.L.P..
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) was Nellie’s contemporary and much more radical than the other members of the Pankhurst family. There are may intersections (more than I can elaborate on in this piece) where Nellie and Sylvia can be located. Pankhurst famously wrote about <a href="https://www.unz.com/print/McClures-1913aug-00087">her experiences</a> of being imprisoned and force fed in Holloway Gaol. We know from multiple sources that Nellie also went to prison for her suffragette activities. Limouzin is is not listed on the <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8">Roll of Honour: Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914</a> (which was compiled in the 1950s and is an incomplete source) and I have been unable to find her prison records which must exist. Somewhere.
<figure id="attachment_25089" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25089" style="width: 661px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="wp-image-25089 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=661%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="661" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=661%2C800&ssl=1 661w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=413%2C500&ssl=1 413w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=768%2C930&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?w=862&ssl=1 862w" sizes="(max-width: 661px) 100vw, 661px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25089" class="wp-caption-text">Nellie (face obscured by hat) with Sylvia Pankhurst and friends c. 1907 SOURCE: Bowker/Finlay</figcaption></figure>
For several years I have unsuccessfully tried to identify precisely when this photograph was taken and who exactly is in the frame. It was originally supplied to Orwell biographer, the late Gordon Bowker, by “Lyndell”, an “Esperantist contact” who told him that Nellie’s face is obscured by her hat. It is likely to have been taken sometime between 1906-1909 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Embankment">Embankment in London</a> (the Sphinx had been removed by 1910).
One possibility is the day Sylvia Pankhurst led a procession of women to lobby the politicians on the opening day of parliament, the 19th February 1906. Over three hundred women marched in the rain, carrying red banners, to Parliament Square. Some of the wealthier participants reportedly dressed in their maids’ clothing to avoid recognition. Another less likely possibility was the ‘Mud March’, the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), on the 7th February 1907. More than 3,000 women trudged through the muddy streets in the rain to advocate for women’s suffrage.
The 8th March 1907, when the Women’s Enfranchisement Bill (the ‘Dickinson Bill’) was introduced to parliament for its second reading, is a strong contender. Many suffragettes were arrested when the W.S.P.U. attempted to storm the Houses of Parliament. The strongest possibility – Sylvia Pankhurst, who lived nearby, later remembered the carnival atmosphere on the day – is “<a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Sunday">Women’s Sunday</a>” on the 21st June, 1908.
My focus on Nellie (and this is the name Ida Blair prefers for her sister when writing in a diary during 1905) has always focused on her commitment to Esperanto and political radicalism. Primary source materials are revealing much more about her literary, scholarly and performance career. <img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-27190" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=500%2C102&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="102" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=500%2C102&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=800%2C163&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=768%2C156&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=1536%2C312&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?resize=2048%2C416&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-14-at-9.48.07 am.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h2>Limouzin, writer & comedic performer</h2>
During this period of intense political activity, by women seeking electoral and social reform, Nellie’s professional career was blooming. Now in her mid-30s, she was performing her own comedic material on the London stage, as Elaine Limouzin. These dramatic recitals were advertised widely – Daily Telegraph & Courier; Morning Post; London Evening Standard – and reviewed glowingly, earning great accolades in both the theatrical and mainstream press.
<figure id="attachment_27088" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27088" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-27088 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Daily_Telegraph__Courier_Londo_13_June_1906_0001_Clip.jpg?resize=610%2C90&ssl=1" alt="" width="610" height="90" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Daily_Telegraph__Courier_Londo_13_June_1906_0001_Clip.jpg?w=610&ssl=1 610w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Daily_Telegraph__Courier_Londo_13_June_1906_0001_Clip.jpg?resize=500%2C74&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27088" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Telegraph & Courier, 13th June 1906 </figcaption></figure>
Several reviews in 1905-1906, of performances at the Salle Erard, on Great Marlborough Street, provide evidence that she composed her own “drolleries” which had a “rare effect” on the audience. “Henry Sees Life” is the story of a “country boy’s first visit to the theatre” and two other original performance pieces – “Why I left” and “A Future Fireman” – caused “much amusement” and pleased her audiences greatly.
“The Widow in the Window” may be one of her own compositions too. “The Morte de Guinevere” – described as “an epic of modernity, dealing with the craze for shop bargains” – is possibly an original piece delivered with “quiet and pointed sarcasm”. It appears to be the most obviously feminist performance piece in her repertoire.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/the_stage_11_may_1905_0011_clip/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="953" height="1357" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_11_May_1905_0011_Clip.jpg?fit=953%2C1357&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_11_May_1905_0011_Clip.jpg?w=953&ssl=1 953w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_11_May_1905_0011_Clip.jpg?resize=351%2C500&ssl=1 351w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_11_May_1905_0011_Clip.jpg?resize=562%2C800&ssl=1 562w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_11_May_1905_0011_Clip.jpg?resize=768%2C1094&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 953px) 100vw, 953px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/the_stage_21_june_1906_0003_clip/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="899" height="1070" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_21_June_1906_0003_Clip.jpg?fit=899%2C1070&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_21_June_1906_0003_Clip.jpg?w=899&ssl=1 899w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_21_June_1906_0003_Clip.jpg?resize=420%2C500&ssl=1 420w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_21_June_1906_0003_Clip.jpg?resize=672%2C800&ssl=1 672w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Stage_21_June_1906_0003_Clip.jpg?resize=768%2C914&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 899px) 100vw, 899px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/the_morning_post_16_june_1906_0005_clip/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="636" height="431" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Morning_Post_16_June_1906_0005_Clip.jpg?fit=636%2C431&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Morning_Post_16_June_1906_0005_Clip.jpg?w=636&ssl=1 636w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The_Morning_Post_16_June_1906_0005_Clip.jpg?resize=500%2C339&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px" /></a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Follen_Adams">Charles Follen Adams</a>, a now forgotten name, was well-known to Limouzin’s audience and she was able to recite <a href="https://archive.org/details/leedleyawcobstra00ada/page/10/mode/2up">“Leedle Yawcop Strauss”</a> effortlessly as an encore. <a href="https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tom-perkins-morgan-3028/">Tom P. Morgan</a> was another well-known American writer of humorous stories and verse that rendered a cast of eccentric characters for a popular audience. <a href="https://www.unz.com/print/SmartSet-1901nov-00096/">“Speakin’ of Men”</a> is a good example of his wit it is easy to imagine Limouzin delivering it live:
<blockquote>The only man I ever knew to die for love starved to death after bein’ refused by an heiress. The average man is both a success and a failure—he is a success as a failure and a failure as a success—and then he has the face and impudence to declare that his wife made him all that he is. The ordinary man, no matter if he is as homely and rickety as an old saw-horse, secretly cherishes the sneakin’ hope that some beautiful adventuress will come along and turn his head, when usually, as a matter of fact, the first woman that turned his head would twist it clear off.</blockquote>
The choice of Nellie’s material plays to her strengths by entertaining the audience with her “very amusing character sketches, in which she displays equal facility in presenting dialects of so varied character as the Cockney and the American”.
It is likely, as more newspapers and journals from the late 19th and early 20th century are digitised, more reviews will become available.
<h2 style="text-align: left;">The Salle Erard</h2>
Considering that these reviews indicate that Nellie was a talented writer, as well as a performer, it is worth examining more closely where she was performing and the milieu on stage with her during 1905-1906.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_%C3%89rard">Sébastien Erard (1752-1831)</a>, the celebrated harp and pianoforte manufacturer, founded a small instrument factory in London during the late 18th century as a result of the ongoing uncertainty caused by revolution and counter-revolution in France. His ancestors continued to develop the site he <a href="https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/pp250-267#p57">established in Great Marlborough Street</a>. Their firm commissioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Stone">Percy G. Stone</a>, whose office was next door at No. 16, to design a new building for the firm with workshops, showrooms and a concert hall. It is worth digressing to describe what was an extraordinary building:
<blockquote>The front was built in buff-pink brick, banded and dressed with terra-cotta, was an elaborate design in a mixture of the ‘François Premier’ and ‘Flemish Renaissance’ styles. The composition was of three lofty storeys, divided by narrow panelled pilasters into three bays, each crowned with a gable. The porch projecting from the middle bay had a segmental pediment, which was broken by an arched niche and rested on two groups of three stumpy Doric columns raised on high pedestals with panelled dies. In the left bay was an arched doorway leading to the concert room, and a window. In the right bay was a large window of three lights, the middle one arched. Each bay of the first-floor face contained a large window, divided by pilaster-mullions and transoms to form three arch-headed lights below smaller lights, each divided by a central mullion of paired balusters. The apron panels below these windows were adorned with medallion portraits of musicians, and two similar medallions flanked the royal arms above the middle window. In each bay of the second-floor face was a large square window, divided by mullions and a transom into two tiers of three lights. The window in each side bay had a shaped apron and a scrolled pediment, but the middle window was finished with a semicircular pediment filled with fan ornament. The gables, too, had different profiles, those above the side bays rising in ogee curves to finish with a segmental pediment, whereas the middle one was concave-sided and had a triangular pediment, originally with a finial in the form of a harp. <a href="https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/pp250-267#p57">SOURCE</a></blockquote>
Stone had a growing reputation in his field and American Architect and Building News published a lithograph of the building in late 1895.
<figure id="attachment_27142" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-27142" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-27142 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Salle-Erard-e1705109436241.webp?resize=480%2C614&ssl=1" alt="" width="480" height="614" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-27142" class="wp-caption-text">Salle Erard, 18 Great Marlborough Street, 1895</figcaption></figure>
The walls of the concert room were lined with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincrusta">lincrusta</a> above a high <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dado_(architecture)">dado</a> of neo-Jacobean panelling. In the centre of the north side was an elaborately framed double-doorway with a swan-necked pediment, and in the windows of the south side were medallion portraits in stained glass of famous composers and pianists.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graphic">The Graphic </a>(July 1894) announced the opening of “Messrs. Erard’s new concert hall” with some of the newspaper’s characteristic illustrations. The new performance space is described as part of a “handsome building that has just been erected upon the site of the historic house in Great Marlborough Street”. The article is particularly useful for contextualising the space:
<blockquote>The new Salle Erard is intended for the use of those who desire to Show their talent before a select rather than a large audience. The room will, indeed, comfortably hold 300 people, that is to say, as many as an ordinary pianoforte recital giver is likely to attract without dispensing free tickets.</blockquote>
The author approvingly notes the “excellent sound” in a well-proportioned space tastefully decorated with portraits of pianists and composers – including Thalberg, Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Madam Schumann, Rubinstein, Chopin and others – on the stained-glass windows and ventilators.
Due to council licensing laws, it appears the concert hall was never officially legally sanctioned until 1898. It closed in 1910.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/the-graphic-14-july-1894-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="646" height="564" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894-2.jpg?fit=646%2C564&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894-2.jpg?w=646&ssl=1 646w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894-2.jpg?resize=500%2C437&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/the-graphic-14-july-1894/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="666" height="558" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894.jpg?fit=666%2C558&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894.jpg?w=666&ssl=1 666w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Graphic-14-July-1894.jpg?resize=500%2C419&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 666px) 100vw, 666px" /></a>
The musical performers that accompanied Limouzin’s dramatic recitals were a talented ensemble, most at the very beginning of their careers.
One review notes that “additional aid” was rendered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Drewett_de_Kresz">Miss Norah Drewett </a>(1882-1960) who we now know was in the early stages of a <a href="https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Drewett-Norah.htm">considerable career</a>. Mr. Sydney Brooks, who was “responsible for a cello solo”, taught at the <a href="http://London Academy of Music" data-wplink-url-error="true">London Academy of Music</a>. “The accompanist”, Mr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hughes_(composer)">Herbert Hughes</a> (1882-1937), had recently completed his education at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_College_of_Music">Royal College of Music </a>when he performed with Limouzin. He was destined to be the music critic at the Daily Telegraph for more than two decades and it is interesting to reflect on how <a href="https://www.cmc.ie/music/songs-connacht">his expertise </a>made him peculiarly suited to Limouzin’s study of the vernacular in her character sketches
<a href="https://catalogue.royalalberthall.com/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2FUK%2F4706">Helen Blain </a> was <a href="https://www.nls.uk/media-u4/1056406/section-03-b.pdf">a pseudonym</a>. She was born in in Dunblane in 1878 and recorded many traditional Scottish verses, including the poetry of Robert Burns. You can listen to a<a href="https://archive.org/details/78_be-kind-to-auld-grannie_helen-blain_gbia3012582a"> recording of her “well cultivated, deep contralto voice</a>“. Mr. Stanley Adams, “who sang very fairly” appears to have been a Canadian vocalist, with a light baritone, in London for the season. He had performed less successfully at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_Hall_(London)">Aeolian Hall</a>, in nearby New Bond Street, the previous evening accompanied by the same Miss Lillian Adam.
Anyone who can assist with identifying Miss Adele Haas, “whose piano solos appeared acceptable”; Mdme. Margaret Izat, “who sang songs by Linley, Gounod, and Liddle”; Agnes Stewart Wood, “who was responsible for violin solos”; Miss Palgrave-Turner, who rendered Secchi’s “Lungi del caro bene” so delightfully; or Mr. Reginald Clarke, it would be much-appreciated. Were any of these performers suffragettes?
<h2>Limouzin, the scholar</h2>
A decade later, aged 46, Limouzin’s intellectual and literary talents, as a <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/02/e-limouzin/">scholar and writer</a>, were put to good use by Oxford University Press. In 1916, new editions of two novels were published with “notes by E. Limouzin”: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eliot">George Eliot</a>‘s first novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life">Scenes of Clerical Life</a>, with an introduction by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Warde_Fowler">W. Warde Fowler </a>(1847-1921); and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gaskell">Elizabeth C. Gaskell</a>‘s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_(novel)">Cranford</a>, which included an introduction by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Shorter">Clement Shorter </a>(1857-1926).
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/02/e-limouzin/title-page-3/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="298" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page-1.jpg?fit=298%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page-1.jpg?w=904&ssl=1 904w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page-1.jpg?resize=298%2C500&ssl=1 298w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page-1.jpg?resize=477%2C800&ssl=1 477w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1288&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/title-page-2-2/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="299" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/title-page-2.jpeg?fit=299%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/title-page-2.jpeg?w=681&ssl=1 681w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/title-page-2.jpeg?resize=299%2C500&ssl=1 299w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/title-page-2.jpeg?resize=479%2C800&ssl=1 479w" sizes="(max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px" /></a>
Warde was an <a href="https://archive.org/search?query=William+Warde+Fowler&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221916%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221925%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221963%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221967%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221971%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221981%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222010%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222022%22">ornithologist and historian</a> with an established reputation as an expert on ancient Roman religion and festivals. He was a tutor at <a href="https://archives.lincoln.ox.ac.uk/records/LC/MS/WWF">Lincoln College, Oxford</a>. After the carnage wrought during the First World War he “declared his sympathy with the international outlook of Labour” (ODNB). Shorter was a journalist interested in popularising literature with a talent for finding wealthy patrons. He founded The Sphere, an illustrated weekly in 1900 and The Tatler, a year later. He contributed a weekly “literary letter” in the former, on whatever he pleased, until he died (ODNB).
During the same year these novels were published, Limouzin was being reviewed positively in All-of-a-Sudden Peggy, a “farcical comedy” at the Ipswich Lyceum. One reviewer noted her “amusing monologues” were received before the play commenced.
Contextually, Eric Blair was studying hard at St Cyprians, preparing for the entrance examinations to Eton College, while his Aunt Nellie was working on the notes for these works of literature and performing on stage.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
There is much to learn about Orwell’s Aunt Nellie aka Elaine Limouzin; E.K.L., Mrs Adam; and E. Limouzin.
During Orwell’s childhood and youth, she was an actress, literary scholar, suffragette, prisoner, comedic performer, student (and then teacher) of Esperanto. While he was serving as a policeman in Burma, she moved to Paris during the period popularly known as <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%C3%A9es_folles">les Années folles</a>, to work on a radical journal. It seems significant that in 1928, her nephew had resigned, joining her in Paris on his own journey to become a writer.
The ongoing characterisation – commenced by Crick over fifty years ago – of Nellie, as “crankish” not only seems unfair, it is inaccurate judgment. Many of the traits that make an Orwell a significant writer are evident in his aunt. She followed her own path.
Limouzin spent a lifetime performing reliably and professionally in the theatre and was politically engaged with the significant political injustices of her time. Her advocacy and support for George Orwell, built on a lifetime of literary, linguistic and creative endeavour, provided her nephew with the kind of intellectual support that few aspiring writers would ever receive from a relative.
<h2>REFERENCES</h2>
American Architect and Building News, December 14, 1895
Bowker, Gordon, George Orwell, London: Abacus, 2004
Bowker, Gordon, The Trail That Never Ends: Reflections of a Biografiend, Finlay Publisher, 2010
Cockin, Katharine, Women and Theatre in the Age of Suffrage: The Pioneer Players, 1911-1925, London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2001
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, second edition, 1992
Daily Telegraph & Courier, 13th June 1906
Duby, Peter, Elaine Limouzin | Theatricalia. [online] Theatricalia.com. Available at: https://theatricalia.com/person/jfs/elaine-limouzin [Accessed 17 Jan. 2020].
Eliot, George, Scenes of Clerical Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916
Evening Star, 7th March 1916
Gaskell, Elizabeth C., Cranford, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916
Graphic, 14 July, 1894
Kentish Gazette, 18th March 1916
Limouzin, Nellie, Letters, SAT Archive
Matheson, P. E., and Myfanwy Lloyd, “Fowler, William Warde (1847–1921), historian and ornithologist”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 1 Sep. 2023. https://www-oxforddnb-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33229.
Moore, Darcy, “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/42790259/Orwells_Aunt_Nellie">Orwell’s Aunt Nellie</a>”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No.2 pp. 30-44
Orwell, George, A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 10, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Pankhurst, Sylvia E., The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905–1910, New York: Source Book Press, 1970
The Stage, 11th May, 1905
The Stage, 21st June, 1906
The Morning Post, 16th June, 1906
Zilboorg, Caroline, “Shorter, Clement King (1857–1926), journalist and magazine editor”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 1 Sep. 2023. https://www-oxforddnb-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36076.
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<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jan 2024 07:32:04 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA["Eros with Chilblains”]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXVH6z7WkwpNk-ifqJurszLU</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/e4cpE9s-ZWKcEZPCfKxWF8b1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt=""Eros with Chilblains”" title=""Eros with Chilblains”"> <h3>In 1930, Ruth Pitter (1897-1992) wrote a comic poem parodying her relationship with the man who was to become George Orwell. “Eros with Chilblains”, Pitter’s ironic reaction to Eric Blair’s attempts at seduction, remained unpublished in her lifetime.</h3>
<div>
Ruth Pitter’s observations of Eric Blair’s struggle to become a writer, during the period 1927-33, make her an invaluable and rare eyewitness into this opaque period of his life prior to assuming that famous pseudonym. She knew his family, found him accommodation, read his first feeble attempts at writing, escorted him to literary soirées and they spent time together with her mother, siblings and friends. 
Pitter, who already had a book of poetry published by 1920, was the first literary figure to befriend Orwell. Her biographer, Don W. King, notes that Pitter’s friends and correspondents make for an impressive “Who’s Who” list of twentieth-century British literary luminaries. She was to become a staple of BBC talk programs and was the first woman awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, in 1955. King also discovered written evidence that Pitter was “going out” with Blair and spent a “fair amount” of time with him.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/img_2467/'><img width="375" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?fit=375%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?w=3024&ssl=1 3024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2467.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/img_2464/'><img width="500" height="406" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?fit=500%2C406&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?w=3272&ssl=1 3272w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?resize=500%2C406&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?resize=800%2C650&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?resize=768%2C624&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?resize=1536%2C1248&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?resize=2048%2C1664&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2464.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>
<h3>The Blair Family</h3>
In 1917 Pitter had moved to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walberswick">Walberswick</a>, bordering <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwold">Southwold</a> where the Blairs were to later reside for two decades. She worked at the Walberswick Peasant Pottery Company, a decorative furniture business. The founders were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_socialism">Guild Socialists</a> (enamoured with the writings of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Richard_Orage">A.R. Orage</a>, William Cobbett, John Ruskin and William Morris) who believed that “the devaluation of the workman’s labour in a capitalist society could only be arrested by the creation of small, self-governing groups of craftsmen”.
In 1919, due to their success and with this goal in mind, the company opened a factory in London and Pitter moved to the city where she met her friend and co-worker, Kathleen O’Hara. Shortly afterwards they were residing near the flat where the Blair family lived, Mall Chambers, in Kensington. Pitter became friendly with Mrs Blair and Marjorie, Orwell’s oldest sister. It was around this time that O’Hara recommended Southwold to the Blair family as a retirement destination.
Orwell wrote to Ruth Pitter, in late 1927, asking for assistance to find a room in London as he was <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/24/orwell-the-map-the-territory/">not returning to Burma</a>. She was surprised to hear from him but remembered those ‘rather formidable’ blue eyes from when they briefly met in 1920. Pitter found him an unheated room – next door to where her employer had an arts and crafts workshop, in Portobello Road, Notting Hill – an area of London he already knew well as it was near where his family had lived at the end of the war and not too distant from his Aunt Nellie’s Ladbroke Grove apartment that he had often visited in his youth.
It was a bitterly cold winter, especially for someone who had just sweated for five years in the tropics. Blair was not in good health and still in pain with what she described as “a nasty foot” which his landlady was willing to dress for him. Ruth lent him an oil stove. He then wrote a story about being lent an oil stove which Pitter regarded with bemused hilarity, knowing she was being “cruel”. It was terrible. Orwell was later to write about warming his hands over a candle before unfurling his fingers to write in that cramped little room where he stayed, until departing for Paris, in June the next year.
Pitter read some other early drafts of his work and was surprised that he was so unusually inept at writing. In fact, she laughed so hard that she cried, especially at his misspelling of swearing and profanity. She tried not to be discouraging but this “wrong-headed young man” had thrown over a good career in what would appear to be a vain attempt to do something he was highly unlikely to achieve.
From this base in Portobello Road, c. October 1927 until May 1928, Blair commenced his expeditions into the East End of London looking for writing subjects among the poor and destitute, as had Jack London, another of his literary heroes. He found common lodging houses to stay around Limehouse Causeway, London’s original Chinatown, before venturing further afield. These experiences would eventually find their way into Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) and his first important essay, ‘The Spike’, published in The Adelphi during 1931.
<figure id="attachment_26068" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26068" style="width: 314px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="size-full wp-image-26068" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/King.jpeg?resize=314%2C499&ssl=1" alt="" width="314" height="499" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26068" class="wp-caption-text">Don W. King, Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter, 2008</figcaption></figure>
Pitter knew Blair was looking for more than friendship as on several occasions he had made it clear that ‘he was after what no nice girl should ever give’. Don W. King has identified Eric Blair as the subject of Pitter’s poem, “Eros with Chilblains”, written in 1930 but unpublished until after her death. She satirises being propositioned by Blair, making an ironic comparison with Eros, God of Love and the man she knew who suffered terribly from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilblains">chilblains</a>.
<h3>Eros with Chilblains</h3>
</div>
No longer blind 
but of all glory forlorn 
appeared the Imp, and blew on his raw hands. 
I don’t want you particularly, 
he said, 
but you’d better have me 
or you’ll get no sexlife, 
you must have sexlife. 
I cried Good God and eyed the waif again, 
meeting the blue suspicious stare. 
Mean modern vesture hid not wholly 
the shape and port celestial; 
the arrogance and the melancholy 
veiled him in part but veiled not all, 
the arrows of fire, the fiery hair 
were chilled and dim, but fire was there.
The classics say, it is no error, 
that a god’s presence induces terror. 
Not ten big bandits in a row 
had made my heart to hammer so. 
Poor old static brought to bay— 
Mind my dear in-er-ti-a! 
Migaud! Something might happen! HELP!
Bluff for all you’re worth don’t let him in. 
He looks mischievous 
as original sin. 
He’s been raking 
in an ashbin. 
Smuts on his face 
a drip on his nose, 
he must be scolded 
wherever he goes.
O look! he’s going all haughty. 
One has to live 
by dustbins or other means. 
Your potvaliant* insults 
prompted by fear 
are vain, for I am He. 
Open the door!
There now, young gamecock, 
lay down your hackles. 
Your ginger hair 
it snaps and crackles. 
Come and see Psyche 
who sits within; 
she shall wash you clean 
from the old ashbin; 
pull you out 
of the garbage can, 
and you shall grow into 
a fine young man.
He spat like a cat, 
he swore like a whore. 
If you patronise me 
anymore 
if you mention Psyche 
again to me I will strike you with lightning 
caterwauled he. 
The trollop’s trailed me 
three thousand years 
and he blistered the earth with fiery tears.
If you really want me 
and you are He, 
the door stands open 
and here I be; 
blind no longer 
you should know 
to my bed and bosom 
the way to go.
I’m damned if I do! It’s up to you! 
You must pick me up and carry me too! 
When I was blind the way was plain 
but now I must learn all over again. 
I don’t want you but you must have Me. 
Take me in and be damned! said he.
Poor little blighter looks cold. 
He’s only a child for all his bluster. 
I can cook and I can scold 
and I full well can wield a duster. 
Pick him up and take him in, 
never mind about the old dustbin.
WHOOPS! He’s an electric eel! 
Hell! Wildcats and porcupines 
battling panthers and barbed wire 
ten bobsworth of squibs, hightension cables 
and no insulation either.
I flung him out in the yard, 
I hoped he damn well died. 
To count the bites and scratches 
for a long time I tried, 
then gave it up and went to bed, 
and listened in case he cried 
there in the dark outside.
I could not hear a whimper 
save from poor Psyche, whose 
sweet holy saving simper 
was always bound to lose, 
but from the outer dark there rang 
an ashbin-lid’s defiant clang.
*Potvaliant means “made bold or courageous by the influence of alcoholic drink”.
<figure id="attachment_26052" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26052" style="width: 404px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-26052" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ruth-Pitter.png?resize=404%2C538&ssl=1" alt="" width="404" height="538" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ruth-Pitter.png?w=404&ssl=1 404w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ruth-Pitter.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w" sizes="(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26052" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy of Win Murrell and published with permission from Don W. King</figcaption></figure>
Daphne Patai argued – in The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology (1984) – that Orwell’s reputation for moral authority was undercut by his condescending attitude and behaviour towards women. Decades before this publication Pitter, who knew from personal experience he was a flawed human being, pointing out that many people viewed the young Eric Blair detrimentally after he returned from Burma, then Paris. She noted the rape scene in Down and Out in Paris and London with particularly understandable distaste.
The poem opens with Blair’s offhand and psychologically cruel approach to bedding her:
<blockquote>I don’t want you particularly, 
he said, 
but you’d better have me 
or you’ll get no sexlife, 
you must have sexlife. 
I cried Good God and eyed the waif again, 
meeting the blue suspicious stare. 
Mean modern vesture hid not wholly 
the shape and port celestial; 
the arrogance and the melancholy 
veiled him in part but veiled not all</blockquote>
There is a lengthy list of intellectual and creative women to whom Orwell was attracted and treated poorly. Blair reportedly told <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/george-and-mabel-an-unlikely-romance">Mabel Fierz</a>, with whom he was having an adulterous affair, that he had picked-up ‘a little trollop’ in a Parisian café who robbed him. Fierz relayed the anecdote for a television documentary:
<blockquote>“In fact, on the question of girls, he once said that of all the girls he’d known before he met his wife, the one he loved best was a little trollop he’d picked up in a café in Paris. She was beautiful, and had a figure like a boy, an Eton crop and in every way desirable. Anyway, he had a relationship with this girl for some time and came a point one day she was beautiful, and had a figure like a boy, an Eton crop and in every way desirable. Anyway, he had a relationship with this girl for some time and came a point one day he came back to his room, and this paragon had decamped with everything he possessed. All his luggage and his money and everything.”</blockquote>
It is hard not to mentally note Pitter’s “Eton bob” considering Fierz’s anecdote and the photographs of the other women Orwell pursued during these years.
It is worth noting that Orwell, who probably never knew of the poem, got his own back with “Old Mrs Pither” and her varicose-veined legs in A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935).
<h3>Literary Success</h3>
From her humble beginnings as the daughter of East End school teachers, Ruth Pitter had an extraordinarily stellar career as a poet publishing seventeen volumes of verse. She won the Hawthornden Prize for Poetry in 1937. In 1955, she received both the William Heinemann Award and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. During the 1950s she was a regular on the popular BBC radio program, The Brain Trust.
Pitter became a well-known, public literary figure giving radio broadcasts on many themes: beauty, romance, leisure, children, literary figures and her experiences growing-up in Hainault Forest, in Epping. This included some memories of Orwell and her brother staying in their small cottage:
<blockquote>“It was in the forest—there are considerable remnants of ancient forest in Essex, which of course are now piously preserved. The party consisted of Orwell, my brother, myself, and I think my mother. It was fine spring weather, and there were plenty of flowers; I think we were all happy. The place was very small, so the two men shared a room. My brother told me afterwards that he thought Orwell’s body very beautiful.”</blockquote>
In 1974, Pitter was awarded Companion of Literature, the highest honour the Royal Society of Literature could bestow. Her final honour was to be appointed Commander of the British Empire in 1979.
<div>
<div></div>
</div>
Orwell was more than a little jealous of her success and literary connections during the 1930s. In 1934, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Russell">George William Russell</a> (1867-1935), who wrote employing the pseudonym Æ, endorsed Pitter’s latest publication, A Mad Lady’s Garland. Late this same year, Orwell wrote to Brenda Salkeld about the depression he was suffering due to a stalled literary career.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/garland-1-2/'><img width="387" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?fit=387%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?w=1681&ssl=1 1681w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?resize=387%2C500&ssl=1 387w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?resize=619%2C800&ssl=1 619w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?resize=768%2C993&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?resize=1188%2C1536&ssl=1 1188w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-1-1.png?resize=1584%2C2048&ssl=1 1584w" sizes="(max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/garland-2/'><img width="388" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?fit=388%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?w=2007&ssl=1 2007w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?resize=388%2C500&ssl=1 388w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?resize=620%2C800&ssl=1 620w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?resize=768%2C991&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?resize=1191%2C1536&ssl=1 1191w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Garland-2.png?resize=1588%2C2048&ssl=1 1588w" sizes="(max-width: 388px) 100vw, 388px" /></a>
In this letter he also reveals that he continued to visit Pitter and through his friendship with her is invited to literary soirées. He jealously mentions that Pitter’s publishers have thrown her a cocktail party (and that his would never do that “in my honour”).
Orwell also mentions to Brenda that he “went to Ruth Pitter’s place and met another poetess – called Pamela Travers – rather nice but appallingly ugly”. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._L._Travers">P.L Travers</a>, best known for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(book_series)">Mary Poppins</a>, also wrote erotic verse. She was hardly ugly and one assumes it is yet another example of Orwell’s teasing, or droll irony, in this case for Brenda’s amusement. He often employed this kind of doublethink, his best friends struggling to know if he was joking or deadly serious.
<figure id="attachment_26081" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26081" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-26081" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Travers.jpeg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="400" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Travers.jpeg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Travers.jpeg?resize=639%2C800&ssl=1 639w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Travers.jpeg?resize=768%2C961&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Travers.jpeg?w=839&ssl=1 839w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-26081" class="wp-caption-text">P.L. Travers, Publicity Shot, 1934.</figcaption></figure>
The last time Pitter saw Orwell was in 1942, during the darkest days of World War II and she “thought then that he must be dying” he looked so ghastly. Pitter was also suffering. At this time, she was working in a munitions factory and one evening, after work, considered suicide atop the Battersea Bridge. She later credited C.S. Lewis’s radio program and writings as being fundamental to her overcoming her depression and becoming a Christian:
<div>
<div>
<blockquote>“As to my faith, I owe it to C. S. Lewis. For much of my life I lived more or less as a Bohemian, but when the second war broke out, Lewis broadcast several times, and also published some little books (notably “The Screwtape Letters”), and I was fairly hooked. I came to know him personally, and he came here several times. Lewis’s stories, so very entertaining but always about the war between good and evil, became a permanent part of my mental and spiritual equipment.”</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
Orwell, in his As I Please’ column published in Tribune on the 27th October 1944, had a very different view of Lewis:
<blockquote>“One reason for the extravagant boosting that these people always get in the Press is that their political affiliations are invariably reactionary. Some of them were frank admirers of Fascism as long as it was safe to be so. That is why I draw attention to Mr. C. S. Lewis and his chummy little wireless talks, of which no doubt there will be more. They are not really so unpolitical as they are meant to look. Indeed they are an outflanking movement in the big counter-attack against the Left which Lord Elton, A. P. Herbert, G. M. Young, Alfred Noyes and various others have been conducting for two years past.”</blockquote>
Lewis and Pitter became friends. Their correspondence reveals a shared esteem, Lewis recognising her poetic talent and requested she critique his poems. He was effusive in his praise of her work.
<h3>Concluding Remarks</h3>
The insights Ruth Pitter provided into Orwell’s early years and work, via letters, television and radio interviews (and this poem), are essential primary sources. Comparing and contrasting the perspective of this successful, self-made poet with <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/buddicom-jacintha/">Jacintha Buddicom’s observations</a>, not least because of the difference in class background, is a useful one.
Pitter cared little for Orwell‘s “highbrow left-wing agnostic friends’ in the 1930s but certainly noted his paradoxical personality and social conservatism:
<blockquote>“How he did adore life! His nature was divided. There was something like a high wall right across the middle of it. A high wall with flowers and fruit and running water on one side, and the desert on the other. I think he was much more fastidious and conventional than one might think from his work – more than he knew himself.”</blockquote>
In 1974, Pitter was asked if she Orwell looked-up to you as someone who had already been published. She responded that he was “a bit snooty”. Pitter was not interested in the contemporary vogue for modernist experiments with meter or verse form and saw herself as “an Establishment poet” who wanted to keep “away from the current literary scene”.
Pitter was ‘fond’ of Orwell and found him a most ‘sympathetic character’. Back in 1927, she had not understood why such a talentless young man would throw away a good job, thinking him ‘considerably wrong-headed’. She later came to admire that Orwell “had the persistence to go on in spite of failure, sickness, poverty, and opposition, until he became an acknowledged master of English prose”.
Although Pitter thought Blair was ‘considered detrimental by many people when we knew 
him; perhaps he really was’ but also saw that ‘the best part of him was that which still lived in the old magic land of youth’.
Both women, largely unnoticed, attended Orwell’s funeral in 1950.
<h3>REFERENCES</h3>
<div class="ff0">
Coppard, Audrey & Crick, Bernard, Orwell Remembered, Ariel Books, 1984
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1992, second edition
Jennings, Humprey, Pandaemonium, 1660–1886: The Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers, New York: The Free Press, 1985
King, Don W., Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter, The Kent State University Press, 2008
King, Don W., Plain to the Inward Eye: Selected Essays on C.S. Lewis, Abilene Christian University Press, 2013
King, Don W., Email Correspondence, 2020
Orwell, George, ‘As I Please,’ 46 Tribune, 27 October 1944
Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 9, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Patai, Daphne, The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology, University of Massachusetts Press, 1984
Pitter, Ruth, First Poems, London: Cecil Palmer, 1920
Pitter, Ruth, A Mad Lady’s Garland, The Cresset Press, 1934
Pitter, Ruth, Ruth Pitter’s Personal Memories of George Orwell, Transcript, London Calling Asia, BBC Radio, 3 September, 1956
Pitter, Ruth, Sudden Heaven: The Collected Poems of Ruth Pitter: A Critical Edition, King, Don W. (ed.) The Kent State University Press, 2018
Pitter, Ruth, The Letters of Ruth Pitter: Silent Music, King, Don W. (ed.) Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2014
Orwell, George, <a style="background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/5apqbq/alma9931840609404761">Letter to Brenda Salkeld</a>, 14th November, 1934
Taylor, D.J., Orwell – The New Life, London: Constable, 2023
</div>
<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
<div>Don King has been unstintingly generous since we first corresponded about Ruth Pitter some years ago. I appreciate his generosity in permitting me to re-publish the photo of Ruth and her poem. I highly recommend his excellent biography of Pitter. My copy, beautifully inscribed by the author, is well-thumbed.</div>
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<pubDate>Sun, 22 Oct 2023 11:39:51 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell & La Tribune Indochinoise]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXUDL-YGoRlvKn-fx8LWuXng</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/_jWQ3ZzRXl3_gz-lMXLZbcb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell & La Tribune Indochinoise" title="Orwell & La Tribune Indochinoise"> <h3>Why were two of the earliest pieces of Orwell’s journalism, written in Paris during the late 1920s when he was still E.-A. Blair, published by a newspaper in Saigon? </h3>
E.-A. Blair published four personal essays in a left-wing weekly Parisian newspaper, <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Progr%C3%A8s_civique">Le Progrès Civique: Journal de Perfectionnement Social</a>, during 1928-1929. Three of the articles explored poverty in Britain. The fourth, analysing how the British Empire exploited the Burmese people, was the last piece of journalism he published in Paris. 
Although mentioned in later issues of Le Progrès Civique, by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Vigne">Pierre Vignes</a> and Maurice Nibart (on 30 March and 7 September 1929), it seemed that these articles had never resurfaced until the publication of <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/orwells-fiction-and-non-fiction/">The Complete Works of George Orwell</a> in 1998.
However, it has become apparent that two of these essays were also published, in La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, during 1929. 
<figure id="attachment_17154" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17154" style="width: 588px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="wp-image-17154 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/29-Dec-1928.jpg?resize=588%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="588" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/29-Dec-1928.jpg?resize=752%2C1024&ssl=1 752w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/29-Dec-1928.jpg?resize=220%2C300&ssl=1 220w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/29-Dec-1928.jpg?resize=768%2C1046&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/29-Dec-1928.jpg?w=1231&ssl=1 1231w" sizes="(max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-17154" class="wp-caption-text">Le Progrès Civique, No. 489, 29th December, 1928</figcaption></figure>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/4-feb-1929/'><img width="2298" height="616" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?fit=2298%2C616&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?w=2298&ssl=1 2298w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?resize=500%2C134&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?resize=800%2C214&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?resize=768%2C206&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?resize=1536%2C412&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1929.png?resize=2048%2C549&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/4-feb-1928-2/'><img width="350" height="1290" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1928-2.png?fit=350%2C1290&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1928-2.png?w=350&ssl=1 350w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1928-2.png?resize=136%2C500&ssl=1 136w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4-Feb-1928-2.png?resize=217%2C800&ssl=1 217w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></a>
The first of these, ‘Une enquête du “Progrès Civique” en Angleterre: La grande misère de l’ouvrier britannique — 1. Le chômage’ (‘An Inquiry into ‘Civic Progress” in England: The Plight of the British Workers: Unemployment’) originally appeared on the 29th December, 1928. It was published again, five weeks later, in La Tribune Indochinoise on the 4th Feb 1929. 
This was followed by ‘Comment on exploite un peuple: L’Empire britannique en Birmanie’ (‘How a Nation Is Exploited: The British Empire in Burma’) which was re-printed during the same year, in two instalments, on the 11th and 13th September.
Correspondence from Les Progrès Civique regarding these articles and payment has survived but does not provide any insights into the possible syndication of the essays. The copy-editor, <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C8675741">Raoul Nicole</a> (1899-1950), who translated these articles into French (sadly, the original English versions have not survived) reveals Blair was to be paid 225 francs for each one.
<figure id="attachment_17151" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17151" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-17151 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4-Mai-1929.jpg?resize=1024%2C767&ssl=1" alt="" width="1024" height="767" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4-Mai-1929.jpg?resize=1024%2C767&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4-Mai-1929.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4-Mai-1929.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4-Mai-1929.jpg?w=1964&ssl=1 1964w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-17151" class="wp-caption-text">Le Progrès Civique, No. 507, 4th May, 1929</figcaption></figure>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/11-sept-1929/'><img width="2256" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?fit=2256%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?w=2256&ssl=1 2256w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?resize=500%2C111&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?resize=800%2C177&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?resize=768%2C170&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?resize=1536%2C340&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929.png?resize=2048%2C454&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/11-sept-1929-2/'><img width="334" height="1032" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929-2.png?fit=334%2C1032&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929-2.png?w=334&ssl=1 334w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929-2.png?resize=162%2C500&ssl=1 162w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/11-Sept-1929-2.png?resize=259%2C800&ssl=1 259w" sizes="(max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/13-sept-1929-3/'><img width="2260" height="510" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?fit=2260%2C510&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?w=2260&ssl=1 2260w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?resize=500%2C113&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?resize=800%2C181&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?resize=768%2C173&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?resize=1536%2C347&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-1.png?resize=2048%2C462&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/13-sept-1929-2-2/'><img width="354" height="1008" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-2-1.png?fit=354%2C1008&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-2-1.png?w=354&ssl=1 354w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-2-1.png?resize=176%2C500&ssl=1 176w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/13-Sept-1929-2-1.png?resize=281%2C800&ssl=1 281w" sizes="(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px" /></a>
How Blair’s articles were specifically sourced for this French-language newspaper in Saigon is not immediately obvious. However, considering the intensity with which radical political ideas were exchanged by the diverse milieu of journalists, editors and politicians active during the postwar period in Paris and Saigon, it is possible to infer contextually how this eventuated.
Situating the internal wrangling at La Tribune Indochinoise, within the wider political context and history of anti-colonial activism, reveals much of the story.
<h3>La Tribune Indochinoise</h3>
La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, founded in 1926 by <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B9i_Quang_Chi%C3%AAu">Bùi Quang Chiêu </a>(1873-1945), appeared thrice weekly until 1942. 
Chiêu, born into a family of Confucian scholars in Southern Vietnam, studied in France and Algeria (1893-1897) before returning to Indochina as an agronomist working in the colonial bureaucracy. In 1907, he was assigned by the French Governor-General to manage a silkworm and silk weaving facility. He became instrumental in the technical and economic success of this industry which led to greater personal business opportunities, including lucrative hat factories and rice mills.
Chiêu, a naturalised French citizen, a large landowner, elitist and self-professed bourgeois became increasingly wealthy, well-connected and committed to constitutional – rather than revolutionary political change – in order to improve the status and lives of the Vietnamese people, or at least those of his own class and background, including French-educated businessmen, landowners and civil servants.
Censorship rules were relaxed during World War I by the French colonial administration, led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Sarraut">Albert Sarraut</a>, in an effort to garner popular support for the war effort. The local newspapers that emerged were granted financial support by the French authorities but kept under close control. Sarraut’s strategy (collaborate with those willing to cooperate with the colonial regime while developing increased capacity to monitor those who wished to overthrow French rule) placed Chiêu in a prime position to work within the pre-existing order of things.
In 1919, along with Dương Văn Giáo (1892-1945) and <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Phan_Long">Nguyễn Phan Long</a> (1889-1960), Chiêu founded the Indochinese Constitutionalist Party. This new political party had the goals of modernising the country and establishing freedoms through the legal framework of a constitution.
Chiêu established an official press organ for the party, La Tribune Indigène. He had the necessary French political support to nurture his electoral ambition and was able to successfully fund his newspaper enterprise with the support of a network of wealthy southern Vietnamese families.
Aided by a son studying to be a doctor* and Duong Van Giao, Chiêu traveled back and forth between Vietnam and the French capital during the 1920s. He had a surprising amount of latitude to be critical of government policies and grew in popularity as a result of his patriotic advocacy for the Indigenous people. 
Giáo, a lawyer married to a French woman, had lived in Paris for more than a decade and was well-connected to progressive politicians and emigrant Vietnamese anti-colonialists. He was legal counsel to militant nationalists (“dragons”) including <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_V%C4%83n_Tr%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Dng">Phan Văn Trường</a> and <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Th%E1%BA%BF_Truy%E1%BB%81n">Nguyễn Thế Truyền</a>.
In February 1925, Giáo successfully defended his doctoral thesis in law, “Indochina during the War of 1914-1918”. He argued that a radical transformation of the colonial status of indigenous people was deserved as a reward for the loyalty Indochinese troops had demonstrated during the war. Autonomy would not result in the breaking of political ties with the mainland in the form of independence. He insisted that being nationalist did not mean being anti-French but anti-imperialist.
During this period, Giáo became the main voice of the Constitutionalist movement in France. Significantly, he established a metropolitan branch of the Constitutionalist Party connected to the French Radical Socialist Party. Giáo published a European edition of La Tribune Indochinoise (1926–1927) in Paris edited by François Martin.
<figure id="attachment_25883" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25883" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-25883" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=800%2C261&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="261" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=800%2C261&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=500%2C163&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=768%2C251&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=1536%2C502&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_2384.jpg?resize=2048%2C669&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25883" class="wp-caption-text">La Tribune Indochinoise (European edition)</figcaption></figure>
In 1925, La Tribune Indigène had closed while Chiêu was on sabbatical in Paris. The following year he founded La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois which supported Franco-Vietnamese reconciliation. 
Chiêu continued to elicit support from the French authorities. In 1925, he wrote to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Varenne">Alexandre Varenne</a>, the newly-appointed and first socialist Governor-General of French Indochina (1925-1928), explaining that he still believed in “the civilising mission of France”.
Varenne was popular at first with the Vietnamese. He granted clemency to a revolutionary patriot who had just been sentenced to death, relaxed press censorship and promised reforms in the areas of education, civil rights and local administration. He implied that at some future date the French would grant Vietnam independence. These announcements were deeply unpopular among French residents and he was forced to back down on a number of his pledges. 
At a meeting held by the Saigon branch of the Human Rights League in September 1926, Bùi Quang Chiêu and Nguyễn Phan Long presented Varenne with a “List of Vietnamese Wishes”. 
Chiêu had echoed these sentiments and advocated for more educational provision, freedom of expression and movement but was increasingly challenged by a younger generation of radicals within and without of the Constitutional Party (some of whom he employed to write for La Tribune Indochinoise) for his moderate views. He played a subtly understandable political game, considering the growing possibility of being arrested, by regularly seeking reassurances from the authorities that his criticisms were acceptable and toning down his editorials when advised.
No tangible changes came from Varenne’s administration and the early toleration he had demonstrated ended in early 1927 with an unprecedented series of repressive measures. Newspapers were closed and journalists arrested, especially from the northern and central parts of the country. 
Ironically, Chiêu was also increasingly treated with suspicion by the French authorities at the same time he was being rejected by more radical, anti-colonial voices. He struggled to maintain credibility. 
Although his political influence had declined beyond repair by the late-1920s, it was not until the 1930s that Chiêu was widely viewed as unacceptably pro-French and a collaborator with the colonial system that he had once criticised. In 1938, he retired from political life having fallen from favour. 
<figure id="attachment_25818" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25818" style="width: 380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-25818" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bui_Quang_Chieu.jpg?resize=380%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="380" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bui_Quang_Chieu.jpg?resize=380%2C500&ssl=1 380w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bui_Quang_Chieu.jpg?resize=608%2C800&ssl=1 608w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bui_Quang_Chieu.jpg?resize=768%2C1010&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bui_Quang_Chieu.jpg?w=803&ssl=1 803w" sizes="(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25818" class="wp-caption-text">Bùi Quang Chiêu (1943)</figcaption></figure>
*One of his daughters, the long-lived Henriette Bùi Quang Chiêu (1906–2012), graduated from a Parisian medical school in 1934 and became the first female doctor in Vietnam.
<h3>The Influence of Radical Paris</h3>
“To any-student who wishes to go to France to study, the colonial administration imposes police formalities that for the most part amount to refusing the permission of travel under the surprising pretext that ‘the trip to France is a trip to anti-France’.” Bùi Quang Chiêu <a href="https://archive.org/details/antiimperialmetr0000goeb/page/121/mode/1up?q=Chieu+major+moderate">(SOURCE)</a>
“The most dangerous enemies of the government are the young men of the educated classes. If these classes were more numerous and were really educated, they could perhaps raise the revolutionary banner.” E.-A. Blair, “How a Nation Is Exploited: The British Empire in Burma”
During the 1920s, a growing number of politically well-educated Vietnamese newspaper editors, journalists, lawyers and activists, already under suspicion for their close connections with anti-colonial activists, returned to Saigon from Paris to openly contest colonial rule. Unsurprisingly, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BBret%C3%A9#:~:text=called%20S%C3%BBret%C3%A9%20nationale.-,History,any%20detectives%20on%20its%20staff.">French Surêté</a> kept those to considered dangerous nationalists under close surveillance. Bùi Quang Chiêu was a very moderate, establishment figure when compared with some of his compatriots.
The most significant of those seeking de-colonisation was Nguyễn Ái Quốc, better known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh">Hồ Chí Minh</a> (1890-1969), who commenced his political activism while living in France during 1919-1923. Quốc’s joined the Groupe des Patriotes Annamites (Group of Vietnamese Patriots) and his first significant political action was to present an eight-point petition, the “Demands of the Annamite People,” to the Versailles Peace Conference.
On the 18 June 1919, this list of demands, signed “For the Group of Vietnamese Patriots by Nguyen Ai Quoc”, was published in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Humanit%C3%A9">L’Humanité</a>, one of the few newspapers that provided space for anti-colonial voices at this time: 
(1) general amnesty for all native political prisoners;
(2) reform of Indochinese justice by granting the natives the same judicial guarantees as were enjoyed by Europeans;
(3) freedom of press and opinion;
(4) freedom of association;
(5) freedom of emigration and foreign travel;
(6) freedom of instruction and the creation in all provinces of technical and professional schools for indigenous people;
(7) replacement of rule by decree by rule of law;
(8) election of a permanent Vietnamese delegation to the French Parliament, to keep it informed of the wishes of indigenous people.
The First World War was to be a crucible for the growth of political awareness among colonised peoples. Although Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points Declaration, a statement of principles for peace to after the horror of war, called for self-determination for all peoples, the American president’s focus was Eurocentric. The blatant inequality in French Indochina, embedded through a systemic racial hierarchy, was not easily overthrown. Little came from this petition other than enhancing Quốc’s profile with French socialists, communists and anarchists who provided practical support in helping him publish his writing and an ongoing political education.
Quốc attended and addressed the foundational congress of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_French_Communist_Party">Parti Communiste Français / PCF</a> (French Communist Party) in Tours on the 30 December 1920. Eugène Adam, the Esperantist married to Owell’s Aunt Nellie, was also a founding member. Quốc was able to speak conversationally in Esperanto.
<figure id="attachment_25516" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25516" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-25516 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=800%2C560&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="560" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=800%2C560&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=500%2C350&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=768%2C538&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=1536%2C1075&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?resize=2048%2C1434&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25516" class="wp-caption-text">Quốc speaking at the foundational congress of the Parti Communiste Français</figcaption></figure>
It was with the support of one of his early French communist mentors, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Vaillant-Couturier">Paul Vaillant-Couturier</a>, Quốc gained a reader’s ticket for the Bibliothèque Nationale. French police records of his library borrowing reveal great eclecticism: classics of French literature – Hugo, Zola, Anatole France, Michelet and Rolland – along with French translations of Tolstoy and in English, Shakespeare and Dickens. He subscribed to L’Humanité, Le Libertaire, Le Populaire and Le Journal du Peuple – as well as numerous non-political magazines. Another influential friend was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Cachin">Marcel Cachin</a>, the communist politician and long-time editor of L’Humanité.
Quốc was kept under close (although surprisingly ineffective) surveillance by the French authorities and this documentation has proven a rich vein of historical knowledge about the future Vietnamese president’s activities and associates, especially while residing at 6 Villa des Gobelins in the 13th arrondisment as one of the “Five Dragons”. These veteran anti-colonial activists included <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Ch%C3%A2u_Trinh">Phan Châu Trinh</a>; Phan Văn Trường; <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_An_Ninh">Nguyễn An Ninh</a>; and, Nguyễn Thế Truyền who is thought to have first introduced him to socialist thought.
<figure id="attachment_25821" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25821" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-25821" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NhomNguLong.jpeg?resize=500%2C443&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="443" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NhomNguLong.jpeg?resize=500%2C443&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NhomNguLong.jpeg?resize=768%2C680&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NhomNguLong.jpeg?w=778&ssl=1 778w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25821" class="wp-caption-text">“The Five Dragons”</figcaption></figure>
The police files reveal that on the 19th January 1920, Quốc met at this residence with <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Phan_Long">Nguyên Phan Long</a>, a close associate and friend of Bui Quang Chiêu, who was a journalist publishing articles in La Tribune Indigène. Subsequently, Chiêu occasionally associated with Quốc during the 1920s.
Oddly, he had first met the future President of Vietnam aboard the Amiral Latouche-Treville in 1911. Quốc, known as Van Ba at this time, was working as a chef’s assistant. Coincidentally, Chiêu, who was traveling first class with his own son, knew Quốc’s father, <a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Sinh_S%E1%BA%AFc">Nguyen Sinh Sac</a>. 
<h3>Le Progrès Civique</h3>
Who Eric Blair associated with during the eighteen months he spent in Paris (June 1928-December 1929) is largely unknown. More significantly, feverish political activism resulted in increased state surveillance and the dossiers compiled on individuals in Paris, especially those suspected of being communists, provide invaluable primary source materials for historians researching the period. 
Orwell’s Security Service personnel file, released by MI5 in 2007, reveals that Blair, the “ex-Indian policeman journalist” was <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/07/04/orwell-in-paris-under-surveillance/">under surveillance </a>in early 1929. His file indicates that the authorities knew of his contributions to Les Progrès Civique:
Blair, (redacted) states, wrote three articles in the “Progrès Civique” of 29.12.28., 5th and 12th January, 1929, entitled “La Grande Misere de L’Ouvrier Britannique”. The first article dealt with unemployment in England, which, according to Blair, is due to the war; the second with how the unemployed tramp spends his day; the third with London’s beggars. He spends his time reading various newspapers, among which is “L’humanite”, but he has not so far been seen to mix with Communists in Paris and until he does (redacted) considers that the French will not interfere with him.
Why was Orwell under surveillance? In Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), the un-named narrator suggests a reason:
“… the Paris police are very hard on Communists, especially if they are foreigners, and I was already under suspicion. Some months before, a detective had seen me come out of the office of a Communist weekly paper, and I had had a great deal of trouble with the police.”
The most likely candidates (both weeklies), Monde or Le Progrès Civique, were the only two French publications that printed Blair’s articles. Neither, although left-wing and sympathetic, were Communist newspapers. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Humanit%C3%A9">L’Humanité</a> was a daily Communist newspaper and it is conceivable that Blair sought work as a journalist by visiting their office.
<h3>Henri Dumay (1867-1935) </h3>
“The inexorable grip of the capitalists on the press, even the left-wing press, was revealed in the disillusioning career of Henri Dumay”. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Zeldin">Theodore Zeldin</a>
<figure id="attachment_25584" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25584" style="width: 450px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-25584" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay-1867-1935.jpg?resize=450%2C659&ssl=1" alt="" width="450" height="659" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay-1867-1935.jpg?resize=546%2C800&ssl=1 546w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay-1867-1935.jpg?resize=342%2C500&ssl=1 342w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay-1867-1935.jpg?w=683&ssl=1 683w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25584" class="wp-caption-text">Henri Dumay c. 1922</figcaption></figure>
Born in Lyon, Henri Dumay (1867-1935) had studied journalism in the United States before being appointed as a professor at the University of St. Louis, aged 25. He became an editorial assistant to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pulitzer">Joseph Pulitzer </a>(at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_World">New York World </a>) who dispatched him to Paris in 1899 to cover the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair">Dreyfus trial</a> (where he witnessed the attempted assassination of Dreyfus’s defense counsel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Labori">Fernand Labori</a>).
Forging an extremely successful career in Paris, Dumay established himself at a number of papers before the outbreak of war, most notably, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_Parisien">Le Petit Parisien</a>. In 1906, he created the long-running Sunday Supplement, Nos Loisirs. It was an “illustrated magazine of women and the home” which <a href="https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Nos_Loisirs">published short stories </a>by Arthur Conan Doyle between 1906-1911. By 1923, it had a record circulation of 300,000 copies.
<figure id="attachment_25696" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25696" style="width: 450px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-25696" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Nos-loisirs-revue-illustree-22de-la-femme-et-du-foyer22-.jpeg?resize=450%2C599&ssl=1" alt="" width="450" height="599" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Nos-loisirs-revue-illustree-22de-la-femme-et-du-foyer22-.jpeg?w=450&ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Nos-loisirs-revue-illustree-22de-la-femme-et-du-foyer22-.jpeg?resize=376%2C500&ssl=1 376w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25696" class="wp-caption-text">Nos Loisirs: Revue Illustrée de la Femme et du Foyer</figcaption></figure>
Dumay founded Le Progrès Civique in 1919 – with <a href="https://data.bnf.fr/fr/10934781/henri_bellamy/">Henri Bellamy</a> (1879-1954) as the editor-in-chief – in direct response to the electoral success of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bloc_(France)">Bloc National</a>. He allied with high-calibre left-wing intellectuals, politicians and unionists such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Buisson">Ferdinand Buisson</a>; the influential historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Victor_Alphonse_Aulard">Alphonse Aulard</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Renaudel">Pierre Renaudel</a>; <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Glay">Émile Glay</a>; and, <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Roussel_(syndicaliste)">Louis Roussel</a>.
Sold every Saturday for twenty years, his paper was a feature of the interwar press landscape until folding in 1939. The target audience – educated employees, university students, teachers and civil servants – reputedly appreciated its scathing articles and caustic drawings focused on “social improvement”.
<figure id="attachment_25685" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25685" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-25685" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Le-Progres-Civique-1919-1939.jpg?resize=800%2C336&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="336" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Le-Progres-Civique-1919-1939.jpg?resize=800%2C336&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Le-Progres-Civique-1919-1939.jpg?resize=500%2C210&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Le-Progres-Civique-1919-1939.jpg?resize=768%2C323&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Le-Progres-Civique-1919-1939.jpg?w=1270&ssl=1 1270w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25685" class="wp-caption-text">Le Progrès Civique (1919-1939)</figcaption></figure>
Buoyed by his success with Nos Loisirs and Le Progrès Civique, Dumay managed to raise, by public subscription, sufficient funds to found a daily newspaper, <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-temps-des-medias-2009-1-page-187.htm">Le Quotidien</a>, on the 8th February 8, 1923.
Broadly leftist, with a talented editorial team led by <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Boris">Georges Boris</a> and <a href="https://dicoaffairedreyfus.com/index.php/2020/02/04/pierre-bertrand/">Pierre Bertrand</a>, his new enterprise rapidly expanded to boast an impressive daily print run of 380,000 copies. In 1924, it was credited with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel_des_Gauches">electoral success of the left</a> and the resignation of the conservative President of the Republic, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Millerand">Alexandre Millerand</a>.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-25640" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?resize=500%2C343&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="343" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?resize=500%2C343&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?resize=800%2C549&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?resize=768%2C527&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?resize=1536%2C1054&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Progres_Civique-1925.jpg?w=1600&ssl=1 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Dumay was very good at raising subscriptions from politically engaged Parisians for his newspaper enterprises. In 1927, it emerged that Dumay had tricked the twenty-five thousand readers who had invested 200 or 500 francs each to become shareholders in Le Quotiden. The shares Dumay and his associates held had ten votes each, while those of ordinary shareholders were worth but one. What appeared to be a democratic, co-operative enterprise, was in fact, a facade. 
Dumay, conscious of declining circulation, secretly sold half his shares to a right-wing politician, the cognac distiller Jean Hennessy (1874-1944). L’Oeuvre, its principal rival newspaper, was owned by Hennessy. By stealth, Le Quotiden ended up an organ of the right. 
There were other scandals financial scandals taking place while Orwell lived in Paris. Dumay had partnered with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marthe_Hanau">Marthe Hanau</a> who defrauded the banks by creating non-existent companies. This led to extensive litigation for Dumay (although he was absolved of any guilt in 1929).
Orwell, in How The Poor Die (1946), an essay about his own experiences of Cochin Hospital in Paris, Orwell mentions “the celebrated swindler”, Madame Hanaud. He remembered that she was ill while on remand and been taken to the same hospital which was so bad that “after a few days of it she managed to elude her guards, took a taxi and drove back to the prison, explaining that she was more comfortable there”. 
One wonders, considering his mature, skeptical analysis of the newspaper industry during the late 1930s and 1940s, how much Orwell understood about the controversies involving Dumay?
<h3>Networks of Influence</h3>
Exploring the network of politicians, editors and journalists connected with the left-wing press in Paris suggests how and why E-A. Blair’s articles found there way to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
The concentric circles that emanate from Le Progrès Civique provide the historical context in which Blair’s articles were likely sourced for La Tribune Indochinoise. This network of socialist politicians, journalists and editors – including Henri Dumay, <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://dicoaffairedreyfus.com/index.php/2020/02/04/pierre-bertrand/">Pierre Bertrand</a>, <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Varenne">Alexandre Varenne</a> and <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rucart">Marc Rucart </a>– were members of the <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligue_des_droits_de_l%27homme_(France)">Human Rights League</a> and the <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parti_radical_(France)">Radical-Socialist Party</a>.
The network is complex but prior to working for Dumay, Bertrand founded La Politique with Varenne (who was also a journalist at L’Humanité) before becoming the first socialist Governor-General of French Indochina (1925-1928). 
It is significant, considering how history unfolded in Vietnam from 1945, that these men all shared the belief, as did the naturalised French citizens, Bùi Quang Chiêu and Dương Văn Giáo, in the “civilising mission” of the French colonial Empire. 
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/henri-dumay/'><img width="360" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay.jpeg?fit=360%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay.jpeg?w=1081&ssl=1 1081w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay.jpeg?resize=360%2C500&ssl=1 360w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay.jpeg?resize=577%2C800&ssl=1 577w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Henri-Dumay.jpeg?resize=768%2C1066&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/pierre-bertrand/'><img width="372" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?fit=372%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?w=1143&ssl=1 1143w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?resize=372%2C500&ssl=1 372w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?resize=595%2C800&ssl=1 595w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?resize=768%2C1033&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Pierre-Bertrand.jpg?resize=1142%2C1536&ssl=1 1142w" sizes="(max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/alexandre_varenne-1919/'><img width="350" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alexandre_Varenne-1919.jpg?fit=350%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alexandre_Varenne-1919.jpg?w=644&ssl=1 644w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alexandre_Varenne-1919.jpg?resize=350%2C500&ssl=1 350w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alexandre_Varenne-1919.jpg?resize=561%2C800&ssl=1 561w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/marc_rucart_1933/'><img width="374" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?fit=374%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?w=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?resize=374%2C500&ssl=1 374w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?resize=598%2C800&ssl=1 598w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?resize=768%2C1027&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marc_Rucart_1933.jpg?resize=1149%2C1536&ssl=1 1149w" sizes="(max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px" /></a>
 
<h3>In Conclusion</h3>
Why was this early journalism by Orwell specifically published in La Tribune Indochinoise?
On the date that E.-A. Blair’s first essay was published in Le Progrès Civique, Bùi Quang Chiêu and his nephew, Dương Văn Giáo were en route to Calcutta.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1869-1964), the future Prime Minister of India and the current Secretary General of the Congress, had met Giáo at a recent anti-imperialist congress held in Brussels and formally invited these leaders of the Constitutionalist Party to attend the Indian Congress.
On New Year’s Day 1929, they attended the final session of the conference. The major conflict amongst the delegates was between those prepared to accept Dominion Status and those who wanted nothing less than complete independence.
Chiêu wrote a detailed travelogue of the trip in a series of articles published during the first half of 1929 in La Tribune Indochinoise. He was extremely surprised at the tolerance of democratic expression he had witnessed noting that the British police only monitored the conference to ensure public order was maintained. 
Any comparison of the two colonial powers was bound to be unfavourable to the French. The apparently liberal, democratising reforms advocated by Sarraut and Varenne were just never implemented in Indochina. His visit to India provided Bùi Quang Chiêu with the opportunity to reiterate the old arguments of the Constitutionalists about the economic power that the Vietnamese population of Indochina represented. His words were directed at the French in the form of a threat—if necessary, the Vietnamese would take up non-cooperation to put pressure on the government—and at his countrymen in the business world to mobilise their nationalist sentiments.
Chiêu had never waivered in his belief for Vietnamese dominion within a French framework. The Constitutionalists deliberately employed political terminology – such as “dominion” and “self-government” – appropriated from British policy in India.
Yet to the end of his life he never ceased to maintain an unwavering loyalty to the ideals of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annam_(French_protectorate)">Franco-Annamite</a> collaboration.
<figure id="attachment_25823" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25823" style="width: 399px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-25823" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/buiquangchieu.jpg?resize=399%2C617&ssl=1" alt="" width="399" height="617" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/buiquangchieu.jpg?w=399&ssl=1 399w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/buiquangchieu.jpg?resize=323%2C500&ssl=1 323w" sizes="(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25823" class="wp-caption-text">Giao and Chiêu en route to India in late 1928</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Postscript</h3>
In the same year George Orwell published Animal Farm, his satirical allegory exploring political corruption and the nature of revolution, Bùi Quang Chiêu (1873-1945) and Dương Văn Giáo (1892-1945) paid the highest price for their journalism and political beliefs.
On the 2nd September 1945, Ho Chi Minh became the President of Vietnam. Later that same month, Chiêu was arrested by <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%E1%BB%87t_Minh">the Việt Minh</a>, accused of collaboration. He was executed along with four sons and one of his daughter. His nephew, Dương Văn Giáo, suffered the same fate and was executed for high treason.
The third figure who had formed the Indochinese Constitutionalist Party, Chiêu’s friend and ally Nguyễn Phan Long – had long ago condemned the systematic exploitation of Vietnam and the lying liberalism of French governments, regardless of whether they were conservative or socialist – survived the purge! 
REFERENCES
Blair, E.A., ‘Une enquête du “Progrès Civique” en Angleterre: La grande misère de l’ouvrier britannique — 1. Le chômage’, Le Progrès Civique, No. 489, 29th December, 1928,
Blair, E.A., ‘Une enquête du “Progrès Civique” en Angleterre: La grande misère de l’ouvrier britannique — 1. Le chômage’, La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, 4 Feb 1929
Blair, E.A., ‘Comment on exploite un peuple. — L’Empire britannique en Birmanie’, Le Progrès Civique, No. 507, 4th May, 1929
Blair, E.A., ‘Comment on exploite un peuple. — L’Empire britannique en Birmanie’, La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, 11 Sept 1929
Blair, E.A., ‘Comment on exploite un peuple. — L’Empire britannique en Birmanie’, La Tribune Indochinoise: Organe Officiel du Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois, 13 Sept 1929
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<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
Stephen Buckley alerted me some months ago to an article by Orwell in the Saigon press from September 1929. I found two more as a result. Thank you, Stephen!
I am particularly indebted to Francois Dubasque! His deep insight into the Parisian political networks of influence c. 1919-1930 has proven absolutely invaluable since we first corresponded several years ago. Equally, Philippe Peycam’s work on the birth of political journalism in Saigon opened the door onto fascinating world. Thank you both!

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<pubDate>Fri, 06 Oct 2023 08:48:24 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell: the Map & the Territory]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXV4LvQcX5AcHt5ZnUTwRGH7</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/ufcBaVjRfyYvI-pdW9lew8b1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell: the Map & the Territory" title="Orwell: the Map & the Territory"> “Once a biographer has mastered his subject, sucked it dry as an ant does an aphid and stored its own juice in his own book, the rest of us need no longer bother our heads about inconvenient notions the biographer’s subject may have offered for our consideration.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer">Germaine Greer</a>
“A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred\_Korzybski">Alfred Korzybski </a>
“THE first feeling on looking at a friend’s relics—letters, manuscripts, odds and ends from the workshop of his mind—is often that they seem almost ridiculously incompatible with the person one knew. This is particularly true of somebody like George Orwell, who kept his life and friends very carefully shut off from each other. Many people do this, of course, but few seal off the compartments as fanatically as Orwell.” <a href="https://archive.org/details/criticaloccasion0000juli/page/190/mode/2up?q=orwell&view=theater">Julian Symons</a>
“His second wife Sonia told me that not long before his death she asked him: ‘George, why not Oxbridge? Why the Burma police?’ Orwell replied that this was a long and complicated story and he would tell her some time. But he never got around to it.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._R._Fyvel">Tosco R. Fyvel</a>
“Returning to England on leave in 1927, he abruptly resigned from the Indian police, for reasons that are still unclear to his biographers.” <a href="https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/orwell-and-empire-douglas-kerr-book-review-krishan-kumar/">Krishan Kumar</a>
There are still significant gaps and silences in the story of George Orwell’s life. An unusually secretive man, he was always going to prove a challenging subject for <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/25/homage-stansky-abrahams-orwells-first-biographers/">biographers</a>. The fact that his estate honoured the request, literally made on his deathbed, that no biography be written made the situation even more opaque.
Although important information about Orwell’s life has surfaced during the 21st century, there has been surprisingly little original research undertaken since the publication of <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/19/a-tribute-to-professor-peter-davison/">Peter Davison</a>‘s magisterial twenty-volume, The Complete Works of George Orwell, in 1998. There have been endless retellings of the basic biographical information, in books and online, as well as a mountain of critical literary analysis of his work from different theoretical perspectives.
Aspects of the orthodox interpretations of Orwell’s life and work need challenging. There is a growing list of “<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/inconvenient-notions/">inconvenient notions</a>” neglected or unknown by biographers but worthy of consideration in an effort to deepen appreciation of Orwell’s motivations, outlook and influences. For example, Krishan Kumar, in a recent review of <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/24/review-orwell-and-empire-by-douglas-kerr/">Douglas Kerr’s new book</a> mentions that biographers have been uncertain why Eric Blair, who assumed the pseudonym George Orwell in 1933, formally resigned from the Indian Imperial Police to become a writer.
Why the (arguably) most influential and widely-read author of the twentieth century decided to quit a conventional career in the service of the British empire and become a writer is interesting in itself. Analysing how the story of Orwell has been constructed by the biographers, his friends and family is equally worthy of consideration.
The reasons usually presented – he was bullied by a superior officer; hated imperialism; was temperamentally unsuited to being a policeman; and, had been suppressing his true nature and just had to become a writer – do not originate from sources dating from the period 1927-1933 when he forged a new career as a journalist and author.
<figure id="attachment_16831" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16831" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="size-full wp-image-16831" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/police.jpeg?resize=700%2C535&ssl=1" alt="" width="700" height="535" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/police.jpeg?w=700&ssl=1 700w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/police.jpeg?resize=300%2C229&ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16831" class="wp-caption-text">Eric Blair is standing third from the left</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Reading History Forwards</h2>
It was a radical decision to resign. Orwell was from an Anglo-Indian background, with <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">both sides of his family</a> having deep inter-generational connections to imperial service and life on the sub-continent. His father served for nearly four decades as a sub-deputy opium agent in Bengal and his mother’s side of the family, the Hallileys, were significant servants of empire.
The conventional narrative – that Orwell “hated the imperialism” he was serving in Burma and had been “outraging” his true nature by not becoming a writer – makes sense, if one reads history backwards. These rare autobiographical assertions were made by Orwell, in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and “Why I Write” (1946), long after his resignation. The earliest written reflection about his decision, in October 1934, for the preface of the French edition of Down and Out in Paris and London, La Vache Enragée says:
<blockquote>“In 1922 I went to Burma where I joined the Indian Imperial Police. It was a job for which I was totally unsuited: so, at the beginning of 1928, while on leave in England, I gave in my resignation in the hopes of being able to earn my living by writing. I did just about as well at it as do most young people who take up a literary career—that is to say, not at all. My literary efforts in the first year barely brought me in twenty pounds.”</blockquote>
There is no doubt that Orwell’s experience led him to understand his own complicity in the “racket” that was empire but his article, “How a Nation Is Exploited: The British Empire in Burma” published in Le Progrès Civique (4 May 1929) is hardly damning imperialism with comments such as the “Burmese have not had much cause for complaint”:
<blockquote>“Up till now the English have refrained from oppressing the native people too much because there has been no need. The Burmese are still at the beginning of a period of transition which will transform them from agricultural peasants to workers in the service of the manufacturing industries. 
Their situation could be compared with that of any people of eighteenth-century Europe, apart from the fact that the capital, construction materials, knowledge and power necessary for their commerce and industry belong exclusively to foreigners. 
So they are under the protection of a despotism which defends them for its own ends, but which would abandon them without hesitation if they ceased to be of use. 
Their relationship with the British Empire is that of slave and master. 
Is the master good or bad? That is not the question; let us simply say that his control is despotic and, to put it plainly, self-interested. 
Even though the Burmese have not had much cause for complaint up till now, the day will come when the riches of their country will be insufficient for a population which is constantly growing. 
Then they will be able to appreciate how capitalism shows its gratitude to those to whom it owes its existence.”</blockquote>
Contextually, at this juncture in his life, Orwell was more concerned by capitalism than imperialism. To believe that the major reason for his resignation was his growing hatred of imperialism is one worth challenging.
Another issue is that books about Orwell are bedevilled with factual errors and intellectual complacency regarding this era of his life. There are a number of reasons for this problem – besides the proofreading and editing process – including that the new works reference out of date materials rather than more recent research or newly discovered sources. It seems important that misinformation about Orwell’s life be corrected and new interpretations, based on new knowledge is shared.
<a href="https://www.djtaylorwriter.com/">D.J. Taylor</a>‘s most recent biography of Orwell offers the following summary of the period leading up to Orwell’s resignation (without wishing to be rude to David) with errors highlighted <del>strikethrough</del>) for the purpose of revealing how overlooked primary source material suggests new directions and possible interpretations:
<del>Early in September Orwell set off for Shropshire to spend a fortnight</del> with the Buddicoms, in the course of which he planned to ask Jacintha to marry him. The visit, as far as we can determine by conflating Jacintha’s original account and information which came to light after her death, was a disaster. Although Prosper and Guinever were at Ticklerton, there was no sign of their sister. Neither was there any convincing explanation of her absence. The suitor was not to know that two months previously Jacintha, seduced by one of her brother’s college friends, had given birth to an illegitimate daughter whom she was giving up for adoption by an aunt and uncle who would pass as the child’s biological parents. Left to fret, and never let into the family’s secret, Orwell quite reasonably assumed that he had been rejected. According to the Buddicoms, he wrote a ‘bitter letter’ to Prosper complaining that he ‘couldn’t get her out of his system’ and made some histrionic declarations that greatly upset the two sisters. Aunt Lil<del>l</del>ian’s diary notes her distress at this ‘terrible situation.’ Clearly Orwell’s behaviour at Ticklerton had not impressed his hosts, as a letter from Aunt Lil<del>l</del>ian to Jacintha insists that their guest was ‘not at all what he used to be, and I don’t think you’d like him much now’. Still ignorant of the true situation, Orwell left for Cornwall, where the Blairs had gone on holiday, and informed his family that he never wanted to hear Jacintha’s name again. The ring was put back in its box and given to Mrs Blair for safe keeping.
Meanwhile, there was a second bomb awaiting detonation. It exploded in Cornwall when, before an audience consisting of his parents and Avril, Orwell declared that he would not be going back to Burma but intended to stay in England and become a writer. Blair family life was characterised by its reserve, and the only surviving comment is Avril’s remark that her mother was ‘rather horrified’. This is a substantial understatement. In fact, the Blairs were scandalised. Not only was Orwell throwing over a well-paid job in the service of his country, he was also abandoning a decades-old family tradition. Richard Blair, in particular, was aghast. He is supposed to have remarked that his wayward son was behaving like ‘a dilettante’, and their relationship seems to have taken several years to repair. Certainly Orwell’s reaction to his death in 1939 is unusually heartfelt – he told his agent how glad he was that ‘latterly he had not been so disappointed in me as before’ – and suggests an outright estrangement. Family friends who got wind of Orwell’s decision were similarly upset. The news ‘filled everyone with horror’, Ruth Pitter recalled. But Orwell would not be dissuaded. A letter was sent to the India Office and his <del>resignation set to take effect retrospectively from 1 July 1927.</del>
Still, though, there is a sense that the situation was not as clear cut as it was later represented. One mark of Orwell’s determination is his refusal to remind the authorities that <del>he had officially come home on sick leave</del>, thereby forfeiting £140 in pay. On the other hand, Maurice Whittome, an old school acquaintance re-encountered later on in the autumn, came away from their meeting with a distinct impression that the business was not yet settled and that Orwell was still undecided about his prospects. And then, of course, there is Jacintha’s offstage role in Orwell’s vision of his future life. As he had come back from the East determined to ask her to marry him, it is worth asking what he would have done had she said yes. (Orwell: The New Life pp.108-110)
A timeline detailing what Taylor means by conflating Jacintha’s original account and information which came to light after her death (including information not considered by him) is useful in an effort to understand these gaps, secrets and silences.
<h3>TIMELINES</h3>
1971 – In January, Jacintha Buddicom watches <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl0oczc19lg">The Road to the Left</a>, a television documentary about Orwell and tells Bernard Crick she was so ‘astonished at the completely erroneous picture of his early life’ that she decided ‘in desperation and disgust’ to try to set the record straight 
– contributes a chapter to <a href="https://archive.org/details/worldofgeorgeorw0000unse">The World of George Orwell</a> 
– tells Crick she was not at Ticklerton in 1927 due to caring for a sick relative rather than the fact she had just had a baby 
– tells Crick that Eric ‘wanted me to be engaged to him before he went to Burma’ 
1972 – Jacintha writes to a relative expressing her regret at rejecting Orwell’s proposals of marriage (the letter was unknown until 2010) 
1973 – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Zinkeisen">Anna Zinkeisen</a> commissioned by Jacintha Buddicom to provide cover art for an unpublished book of poetry (publicised in an essay by Eileen Hunt in 2021). 
1974 – The “<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">peer of the Realm</a>” with whome Jacintha conducted an affair for thirty years dies 
– <a href="https://archive.org/details/ericusremembranc0000budd/mode/2up">Eric & Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell</a>, is published revealing a great deal about his childhood life and ambitions to become a “FAMOUS AUTHOR”. It included important letters to Jacintha from Orwell in 1949. There is no mention of her baby or attempted sexual assault 
1983 – her memories of Eric Blair recorded for the BBC <a href="https://youtu.be/K3UAZB_6bHI?t=249">Arena</a> program 
1984 – she is interviewed for <a href="https://orwellsociety.com/remembering-orwell-again/">Canadian radio</a> 
1993 – Jacintha Buddicom dies 
1995 – Michal (Jacintha’s daughter) is killed in a car accident (unknown outside the family until 2006) 
2006 – cousin and literary executor, the late Dione Venables, publishes a postscript version of Eric & Us which includes the revelations that Orwell attempted to sexually assault Jacintha (which unsurprisingly ended their friendship); that Jacintha had a child in 1927 (to <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/">an un-named father</a>); and, that she was in a long term affair with a “peer of the Realm” 
2010 – a letter from Buddicom (1972) which expresses her regret at rejecting Orwell’s proposals of marriage is published
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-03-at-5.09.38-pm.png?resize=800%2C641&ssl=1" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Establishing an accurate chronology of the biographical details of Eric Blair’s life, from the time he departed Burma until the publication of his first paid article in October 1928 is desperately needed. The period from July 1927 until June 1928 is fundamentally important to developing a greater understanding of his motivations to resign from a well-paid job in Burma and become a writer.
The following timeline is verifiable with hard evidence from British government publications, French census data, letters, private diaries, birth certificates, his <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/07/04/orwell-in-paris-under-surveillance/">state surveillance file</a>, newspapers and other materials (some written in Esperanto). Anything bolded is almost certainly true but the evidence is circumstantial, sometimes oral history or inferred by his biographers, friends and relatives.
(July 1927) 
7 – Eric Blair has his passport reissued in Rangoon (not sighted again until 2005)
<figure id="attachment_16833" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16833" style="width: 220px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-16833" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/George-Orwell-12.jpg?resize=220%2C310&ssl=1" alt="" width="220" height="310" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/George-Orwell-12.jpg?w=220&ssl=1 220w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/George-Orwell-12.jpg?resize=213%2C300&ssl=1 213w" sizes="(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-16833" class="wp-caption-text">Eric Blair (July 1927)</figcaption></figure>
14 – he departs Rangoon aboard the MV Shropshire bound for Marseilles 
22 July – Jacintha Buddicom’s daughter Michal is born at the Baby Clinic and Hospital in North Kensington, London (NB not in May as previously published in 2006). The father, an Oxford friend of her brother, is <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/">Thomas Charles Poynder Tunnard-Moore (1904-1984)</a> 
25 – Ida Blair arrives at Ticklerton Court, Shropshire and is paid to work as a gardener by Aunt Lilian Hayward (née Buddicom) 
28-30 Eric Blair arrives in Marseilles aboard the MV Shropshire 
30 – Eric Blair witnesses a demonstration in Marseilles protesting against the scheduled execution of alleged anarchists <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti">Saco and Vanzetti</a>
(August) 
Eric Blair visits his Aunt Nellie in Paris (census data shows she was residing in the city and, as biographer Bernard Crick wrote, “almost certainly he visited <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">Aunt Nellie</a>, the one aunt, intellectual and bohemian, he had always liked. She was living in Paris with a prominent Esperantist“ 
12-19th – Nellie and Adam facilitate the SAT Esperanto conference in Lyon 
20-23rd – Eric Blair travels home to England. His family have probably not moved into 3 Queen St, Southwold and Ida is still living with the Buddicoms at Ticklerton Court, Shropshire 
23 – Eric Blair arrives Ticklerton Court with the intention of proposing marriage to Jacintha Buddicom. He has an engagement ring from Burma which is now in the possession of relatives of Ida Blair’s maid. Aunt Lilian drops Ida at Church Stretton station to re-unite with her son while she has her hair done. 
23 – Saco and Vanzetti executed 
29 – Ida Blair departs Ticklerton Court, Shropshire 
30 – Eric Blair departs Ticklerton Court, Shropshire for Polperro, Cornwall (possibly stopping at Southwold). Jacintha does not appear at Ticklerton Court during the duration of Orwell’s visit but he is said to have spoken with her on the telephone more than once
<figure id="attachment_21935" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21935" style="width: 2560px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-21935" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=1170%2C839&ssl=1" alt="" width="1170" height="839" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?w=2560&ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=500%2C359&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C574&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C551&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1101&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1469&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ticklerton-court--scaled.jpeg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21935" class="wp-caption-text">Buddicom, J. Tickerton Court, Shropshire</figcaption></figure>
(September) 
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/">Eric Blair visits Polperro</a> for holidays with family / announces intention to resign from the Indian Imperial Police which is <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/">possibly discussed</a> with Maud and Frank Perrycoste 
Writes to the published poet and family friend Ruth Pitter seeking accommodation in London. 
Late in the month, Eric is measured for a three-piece suit from the leading tailor in Southwold, Jack Denny.
(October – November) 
Early October, Blair purchases flannel trousers from Denny’s 
Moves to 22 Portobello Road in London 
Visits his old tutor at Eton College, Andrew Gow, at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is seated at the High Table with his literary hero, A.E. Housman and they discuss Burma 
The ‘old school acquaintance’, Maurice Whittome, claims Blair was uncertain about his future plans (when they met sometime in the autumn) 
26th November – submits formal resignation letter from the Indian Imperial Police 
Tramping in the East End of London (probably on and off until until departing for Paris in June, 1928)
(December) 
Returning from London for Christmas, purchases an overcoat – later pawned in Paris.
(January 1928) 
1 – Official date of resignation from the Indian Imperial Police. It is important to recognise that Eric Blair had applied for 8 months L.A.P. (Leave on Average Pay) as noted in the 1927 Gazette. The 1928 edition reveals that he only had 5 months from 12th July, 1927, as he had resigned effective 1 January, 1928.
(February) 
Late in the month, he spends time researching at the Reading Room in the British Museum
(May) 
7 – Passport (originally issued in Rangoon 1927) altered to change his profession from ‘policeman’ to ‘journalist’. Passport photo likely taken at this time 
<figure id="attachment_23671" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23671" style="width: 355px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23671 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orwells-fancy-scarf-copy.jpg?resize=355%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="355" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orwells-fancy-scarf-copy.jpg?resize=355%2C500&ssl=1 355w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orwells-fancy-scarf-copy.jpg?resize=568%2C800&ssl=1 568w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orwells-fancy-scarf-copy.jpg?resize=768%2C1081&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orwells-fancy-scarf-copy.jpg?w=904&ssl=1 904w" sizes="(max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23671" class="wp-caption-text">Eric Blair (c. May 1928)</figcaption></figure>
(June) 
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/12/12/the-beat-of-the-tambour/">Harold Salemson</a> (who translated Eric Blair’s first published article) arrives in Paris; address was first 3 then 5 (from Nov 29), rue Berthollet, Paris 
7 – Eric Blair arrives in Paris (this is the date listed in correspondence between the Foreign Office and Scotland Yard/Special Branch) 
14 – Nellie Limouzin publishes an article in Esperanto on the anarchist, freemason, vegetarian, nudist and geographer, Elisée Reclus, in Sennacieca Revuo (NB the infamous quip in the second half of Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier) 
20 – The date of entry into France as recorded in the file of foreigners (microfiche) with the address listed as 6 rue du Pot de Fer (and an incorrect birth year)
<figure id="attachment_24697" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24697" style="width: 470px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-24697" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/EA-Blair-registration-1928-2-1.png?resize=470%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="470" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/EA-Blair-registration-1928-2-1.png?resize=470%2C800&ssl=1 470w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/EA-Blair-registration-1928-2-1.png?resize=294%2C500&ssl=1 294w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/EA-Blair-registration-1928-2-1.png?w=538&ssl=1 538w" sizes="(max-width: 470px) 100vw, 470px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24697" class="wp-caption-text">Eric Arthur Blair’s registration as a foreigner in Paris (20.6.28)</figcaption></figure>
(October) 
6 (Sat) – first published article as a professional writer – ‘La Censure en Angleterre’ – <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">appears with Aunt Nellie’s assistance</a> in Monde (edited by Henri Barbusse). It was translated by Salemson who was the the film critic for Monde. 
NB The opening line of Salemson’s manifesto, ‘Presentation’, To interpret the past is to express the present; to express the present is to create the future, in the first issue of the modernist journal he edited, Tambour, is reminiscent of Orwell’s famous dictum, Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past from Nineteen Eighty-Four 

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<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/12/12/the-beat-of-the-tambour/press-card-1/'><img width="2002" height="1478" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?fit=2002%2C1478&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?w=2002&ssl=1 2002w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?resize=500%2C369&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?resize=800%2C591&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?resize=768%2C567&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Press-card-1.png?resize=1536%2C1134&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<h2>Further Consideration</h2>
Recovering the barely discernible timeline of life events, from when Eric Blair departed Burma in 1927 until arriving in Paris almost a year later, is important for understanding his motivations to become a writer. The fulcrum, between his conventional career as a servant of the British state and decision to resign, is the period from 14th July 1927 until he announced his intention to become a writer <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/">while holidaying in Cornwall</a> with his family in September that same year.
Now that the identity and biographical details of the two unknown men in Jacintha Buddicom’s life story – <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/">Thomas Charles Poynder Tunnard-Moore (1904-1984) </a>and <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">Chandos Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce</a> – have been revealed, the cover art she commissioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Zinkeisen">Anna Zinkeisen</a> to produce in 1973 is worthy of further consideration.
<figure id="attachment_23478" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23478" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23478" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JB-poetry.jpg?resize=400%2C472&ssl=1" alt="" width="400" height="472" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23478" class="wp-caption-text">Cover art by Anna Zinkeisen (published with permission from M. Scott)</figcaption></figure>
Jacintha – depicted as a “sensual female sultan, contentedly reading poetry with her cat in the shade, while three men lurk in the woods behind her in a spectral harem” (Hunt) – appears very much in control. The shadowy figure, far in the background, is Eric Blair; the figure to the right, Brudenell-Bruce (who commenced his schooling at Eton College with Orwell in the summer of 1917); and, the man in the punt, Tunnard-Moore.
The fact that Buddicom’s book, Eric & Us, was published the year after this watercolour was commissioned is worthy of further reflection. Did Jacintha correspond with other friends about the commission and her projected book of verse? What do we make of the timing of the publication of her book about Orwell, considering her lover of so many decades, Brudenell-Bruce, died in 1974?
<figure id="attachment_24721" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24721" style="width: 520px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24721" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Cini-and-thomas-Tunnard-Moore-bio-father-of-Michal-Tack-nee-Burke-copy.jpeg?resize=520%2C353&ssl=1" alt="" width="520" height="353" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24721" class="wp-caption-text">Buddicom and Tunnard-Moore c. 1926</figcaption></figure>
Considering the chronology explored in the timelines above, what other questions are worthy of further reflection?
Q. Did Orwell know that Jacintha had given birth to a child?
It is speculation to suggest that Jacintha knew of the Baby Clinic and Hospital, where she gave birth to her daughter, from Orwell’s mother or Aunt Nellie but there <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/">is strong circumstantial evidence</a> this at least possible. If correct, it seems likely Orwell knew Jacintha had a child which may have led him to believe she may marry him and move to Burma where nobody would know the child was illegitimate. The fact that Ida was at Ticklerton Court three days after Michal was born (staying until her son arrived) and that Orwell had been with Nellie in Paris by early August 1927 are important pieces of the jigsaw. It is possible that the well-connected <a href="https://eehe.org.uk/?p=25021">Dr. Noel Hawley Michael Burke</a>, who was married to Jacintha’s Aunt Mimi and adopted Michal six months after her birth, assisted to find the clinic but either way, the answer is unclear.
Q. Did Orwell believe Jacintha would accept his proposal and they return to Burma as a family?
We do not know. It is contextually worthy of further exploration. It has always been puzzling that Orwell would think Jacintha likely to marry him (after the attempted sexual assault and the paucity of letters during the previous five years in Burma). It is a mistake to trust fictional work as biographical evidence but note what John Flory, Orwell’s protagonist in Burmese Days (1934), believes about living in Burma:
He had no tie with Europe now, except the tie of books. For he had realised that merely to go back to England was no remedy for loneliness; he had grasped the special nature of the hell that is reserved for Anglo-Indians. Ah, those poor prosing old wrecks in Bath and Cheltenham! Those tomb-like boarding-houses with Anglo-Indians littered about in all stages of decomposition, all talking and talking about what happened in Boggleywalah in ’88! Poor devils, they know what it means to have left one’s heart in an alien and hated country. There was, he saw clearly, only one way out. To find someone who would share his life in Burma – but really share it, share his inner, secret life, carry away from Burma the same memories as he carried. Someone who would love Burma as he loved it and hate it as he hated it. Who would help him to live with nothing hidden, nothing unexpressed. Someone who understood him: a friend, that was what it came down to.
A friend. Or a wife?
However, we now know how Blair arrives in England and immediately travels by train to Shropshire to propose to Jacintha in August, 1927. He must have felt it was possible she would share his life. As Taylor mentions, “it is worth asking what he would have done had she said yes”. Would he have resigned or taken on some new career? It is unknowable. Ultimately, returning to Burma without Jacintha appears to have not been an option (and it has always seemed ridiculously unlikely to think she would travel to such a backwater). If Orwell knew Jacintha had a child out-of-wedlock, it makes a great deal of sense that he was providing a way of her keeping the child by fleeing to Burma with him where nobody would know it was not his child.
Q. If this was the case, that Eric Blair was aware that Jacintha had a child, does it impact on how Orwell, the man, who attempted sexual assault, is evaluated?
Too hypothetical to consider at this stage.
Q. Considering their professional and personal circles over-lapped, did Orwell know Tunnard-Moore or Brudenell-Bruce?
Orwell certainly knew Brudenell-Bruce from Eton, at least a little. It is also interesting (and I will not take the time to explain this other than to say <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">read this</a>) that Arthur Koestler lived with Peter Quennell, whose wife went onto marry Brudenell-Bruce. This question needs further investigation.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-23486" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=532%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="532" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=532%2C800&ssl=1 532w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=333%2C500&ssl=1 333w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=768%2C1154&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?w=930&ssl=1 930w" sizes="(max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Q. To what extent did Orwell’s experiences of rejection by Jacintha contribute to his decision to become a writer?
I agree with Liam Hunt, Buddicom was “Orwell’s demon” (Davison 2010)! It seems reasonable to posit that the rejection by Jacintha was a key psychological driver of his ambition to become a successful writer.
Q. How did this rejection – and the class background of her potential suitors – impact on his decision to go “down and out” and lifelong penchant for wearing “proletarian fancy dress”?
Last year, while visiting St Edith’s Church, very near the Buddicom family home at Ticklerton Court, it occurred to me how privileged this family was that Eric Blair visited so often. The name “Buddicom” can be viewed in the stained glass windows and on many of the surrounding grave plinths.
<figure id="attachment_25299" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25299" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-25299 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ticklerton-scaled.jpeg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25299" class="wp-caption-text">St Edith’s Church</figcaption></figure>
From 1917-1921, Orwell spent most of his holidays riding, rambling, fishing, engaged in conversation and reading the first editions in the library with a family who had a much more established social position than his own. After his proposal of marriage was rejected by Jacintha, in the late August of 1927, that life receded far into the background.
Eric Blair then rejected, at least temporarily, his class, family and career. The life of the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/62087811/The_True_Artist_Poverty_Networking_and_Literary_Artifice">impoverished artist </a>seem the only viable response to this predicament.
<h2>Afterword</h2>
The above piece is a draft for collaboration and discussion. Your feedback in the comments below or via email would be appreciated. Even if you find the speculation fanciful, the timeline adds to our sum of knowledge about Orwell during this critical period in his life.
NB The references for each point in the timeline will be published formally next year but I am happy to share them with anyone who needs the exact source.
Often oral history and family documents provide the most incredibly useful leads and resources. I am extremely grateful to Melanie Scott for contacting me regarding Jacintha Buddicom. Her willingness to discuss what she knew about her grandmother, kindness in granting permission to use the cover art and documents in her possession, is greatly appreciated.
My heartfelt appreciation goes to Jennifer Brown, Jacintha’s niece, who kindly allowed me to visit her home, read Aunt Lilian’s diaries and examine family photographs. Her answers to subsequent emailed questions have proven an invaluable part of the jigsaw.
Thank you to Liam Hunt, who completely understood the significance of “Orwell’s demon” years ago. Our Zoom chats over the last few years have provided much-needed succour.
My visit to Ticklerton and Church Stretton in Shropshire was greatly enhanced by Ann and Zigurds Kronberg’s knowledgable guidance. I am certain Eileen Hunt was equally appreciative. Thank you!
I particularly value Duncan Stewart’s friendship and our shared intellectual journey to understand Orwell’s life during his days in Paris.
My appreciation for the late Dione Venables’ endless patience in responding to emails and answering questions is boundless. We corresponded often. She kindly invited me to visit her home last year and we chatted about Jacintha and Orwell. Dione generously shared her knowledge and a treasure trove of letters and artwork. I snapped this photo that lovely afternoon.
<figure id="attachment_25182" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25182" style="width: 375px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-25182 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="375" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?resize=601%2C800&ssl=1 601w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1023&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?resize=1153%2C1536&ssl=1 1153w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?resize=1538%2C2048&ssl=1 1538w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dione-Venables-July-2022-scaled.jpg?w=1922&ssl=1 1922w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25182" class="wp-caption-text">Dione Venables (July 2022)</figcaption></figure>
I will miss her!
<h3>REFERENCES</h3>
Bowker, Gordon, George Orwell, London: Abacus, 2004
Buddicom, J., <a href="https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9931462947304761&context=L&vid=44UCL_INST:UCL_VU2&lang=en&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine">Tickerton Court</a>
Buddicom, Jacintha, Eric & Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell, Frewin, 1974
Buddicom, Jacintha & Venables, Dione (2006) Eric & Us: The Postscript Edition, Finlay
Buddicom, Lilian (1927) Diary (unpublished)
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, London: Penguin, 1992
Crook, J. Mordaunt, Brasenose: The Biography of an Oxford College, Oxford University Press, 2009. 574pp.
Davison, Peter (ed), Orwell: A Life in Letters, London: Harvill Secker, 2010
Ewan, Elizabeth, Sue Innes, Siân Reynolds, and Rose Pipes, eds. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women: From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
Fyvel, T.R, George Orwell: A Personal Memoir, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982
Gross, Miriam (ed.), The World of George Orwell, Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1971
Hunt, Eileen M. “A shadow in the background: ‘Dracula’s Daughter’: The rediscovery of a love poem for George Orwell.” TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6166, 4 June 2021
Kelleway, Philip, <a href="https://archive.org/details/highlydesirablez0000kell/mode/2up">Highly Desirable – The Zinkeisen Sisters & Their Legacy</a>, Suffolk: Leiston Press, 2016
Kelleway, Philip; Roodhouse, Emma; Evans, Nicola, The Art of Doris and Anna Zinkeisen, Unicorn. Kindle Edition. 2023
Kumar, Krishan, “Class And Colonialism In The Works Of George Orwell”. TLS, 2023, https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/orwell-and-empire-douglas-kerr-book-review-krishan-kumar/. Accessed 4 July 2023.
Limouzin, Nellie (1928) Elisée Reclus, Sennacieca Revuo, 14 June 1928, Paris: 
SAT
Orwell, George, Burmese Days, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 2, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Orwell, George, The Road to Wigan Pier, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 5, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Orwell, George, A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 10, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, Smothered Under Journalism: 1946, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 18, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, George Orwell: The Complete Poetry, Finlay, 2015
Symons, Julian, <a href="https://archive.org/details/criticaloccasion0000juli/mode/2up?q=orwell&view=theater">Critical Occasions: Essays,</a> London: Hamish Hamilton, 1966
Taylor, D.J., Orwell – The New Life, London: Constable, 2023
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<pubDate>Sun, 24 Sep 2023 13:10:12 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Eric, Cini & Tom]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXXa06INdN_5-qbel3Iu4GjH</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/UmvKXyIzb-j_gz-lMXLZbcb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Eric, Cini & Tom" title="Eric, Cini & Tom"> “When Eric returned to England in 1927, he spent a fortnight with Auntie Lilian at Ticklerton, where Prosper and Guiny were then staying. But completely unavoidable circumstances prevented me from joining the party.” Jacintha Buddicom, Eric & Us (1974) “… a year before Eric arrived back from Burma, she thought she had finally fallen in love. The tragic result of such a mistake would ruin her life. Eric, on his return in 1927, lost no time in contacting the Buddicoms and was invited to join Prosper and Guiny at Ticklerton. There was no Jacintha – and the family were evasive and embarrassed on the subject so that Eric must have assumed that, even after all this time, she was still angry with him and would never forgive his momentary fall from grace. The tragedy is that in fact, Jacintha had just, in May 1927 (sic), given birth to her daughter Michal Madeleine… The father escaped abroad as soon as her condition was discovered and so the baby was adopted…” Dione Venables, Eric & Us (2006)
Eric Blair arrived at Ticklerton Court in Shropshire on the 23rd August 1927 with the intention of proposing marriage to Jacintha Buddicom. On arrival, he was met by his mother, Ida Blair, who had been residing here with Aunt Lilian for the previous month. As we now know, Jacintha (“Cini” to friends and family) had been unavoidably detained due to the birth of her child rather than a wish to not see Eric.
The identity of the father of Buddicom’s child has always been shrouded in secrecy, as was that of the “<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">peer of the Realm</a>” with whom she refused to marry but sustained an affair for more than three decades. The secrets, gaps and silences are understandable. However, uncovering these events from nearly a century ago has the potential to reveal more about Eric Blair’s motivations to become a certain kind writer – one bitterly obsessed with social class and ambitious for artistic, as well as commercial success – than his biographers have previously understood.
<h3>The Birth Certificate</h3>
“There was an Aunt Ivy Limouzin and an Aunt Nellie, as I remember. One or two of these aunts and their friends were Militant Suffragettes. Mrs Blair was in sympathy, but not so active. Some of this contingent, Eric said, went to prison and on hunger-strike as well as more moderately chaining themselves to railings.” Jacintha Buddicom
Jacintha’s child’s birth certificate is a rich source of information. “Michal Magdalen Tunnard-Moore” was born at “1 Ladbroke Square” on the 22nd July 1927 (not in May) and Jesse Emily Rhind listed as being “present at the birth”.
This address in North Kensington was the site of the Baby Clinic and Hospital originally established by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Labour_League">Women’s Labour League</a> due to the high infant mortality rate in the neighbourhood. Founded as a memorial to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_MacDonald_(social_reformer)">Margaret MacDonald</a> (she was the chair of the League and the wife of the Labour Party leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay_MacDonald">Ramsay MacDonald</a>) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Middleton">Mary Middleton</a> (the League’s secretary and wife of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Middleton_(political_organiser)">James Middleton</a>, the General Secretary of the Labour Party).
<figure id="attachment_24832" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24832" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="size-medium wp-image-24832" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?resize=500%2C423&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="423" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?resize=500%2C423&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?resize=800%2C677&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?resize=768%2C650&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?resize=1536%2C1300&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/shbel-MacDonald-Ramsay-MacDonald-1929-courtesy-National-Portrait-Gallery-London.png?w=1768&ssl=1 1768w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24832" class="wp-caption-text">Ishbel & Ramsay MacDonald (1929) courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London</figcaption></figure>
By the time Jacintha had her child, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishbel_MacDonald">Ishbel MacDonald</a> (1903-1982) was closely connected to both her father’s political career and the causes championed by her mother. During this period she was an “Independent Socialist” and had been elected to the <a title="London County Council" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_County_Council">London County Council</a>. Her brother, Malcolm MacDonald, was <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/06/13/orwell-in-burma-the-two-erics/">a brilliant debater who knew some of Orwell’s Eton peers</a>. Ishbel’s correspondence reveals that the Baby Clinic was an important aspect of her mother’s legacy.
Orwell’s aunt, the suffragette, Esperantist, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/02/e-limouzin/">literary scholar</a> and actress <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">Nellie Limouzin</a> had lived nearby the clinic, at 195 Ladbroke Drive, for at least two decades (leasing that apartment until April 1928). Aunt Nellie, an inveterate writer of letters to editors, which reveal the breadth of her activism, was a feminist with extensive connections to important figures in the suffragette movement, including the <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-pankhursts-politics-protest-and-passion/">Pankhursts</a>.
<figure id="attachment_25089" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25089" style="width: 661px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-25089" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=661%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="661" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=661%2C800&ssl=1 661w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=413%2C500&ssl=1 413w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?resize=768%2C930&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Nellie-with-the-Pankhursts.png?w=862&ssl=1 862w" sizes="(max-width: 661px) 100vw, 661px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25089" class="wp-caption-text">Nellie (face obscured by hat) with Pankhursts c. 1907 SOURCE: Bowker/Finlay </figcaption></figure>
Limouzin was associated with many organisations which successfully built political pressure for change. One of these was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Freedom_League">Women’s Freedom League</a>, which had the motto ‘Unity in Adversity’ and was affiliated with the Women’s Labour League (founders of the Baby Clinic). Members attended joint conferences and:
“A special suffrage edition of the League Leaflet was issued late in 1912 (no. 23), a statement of the Labour Party position on suffrage and that the League was working for its achievement.” (Collete: 146)
Mrs Rhind, who is noted on the birth certificate and delivered Jacintha’s baby, was (like Ida Blair) a registered midwife and a significant beneficiary to the Baby Clinic and Hospital. She owned the property and lived on site with a Major Buist. Rhind had lived in this neighbourhood, at various addresses, for almost as long as Aunt Nellie. During 1929, she paid for the clinic to be equipped with an up-to-date operating theatre, paid for furnishings and fittings, a Frigidaire and wireless installation. There was central heating and the site could accommodate 32 cots.
On the 1927 electoral register, Rhind is listed with the bolded initials SJ indicating she was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_jury">“Special Juror”.</a> The main difference between a “special jury” and a “common jury” was a matter of wealth related to the rateable value of the house. Mrs Rhind was another wealthier woman with a social conscience.
<figure id="attachment_24799" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24799" style="width: 494px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-24799" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register.jpg?resize=494%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="494" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?resize=494%2C800&ssl=1 494w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?resize=309%2C500&ssl=1 309w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1244&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?resize=948%2C1536&ssl=1 948w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?resize=1264%2C2048&ssl=1 1264w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electoral-register-scaled.jpg?w=1580&ssl=1 1580w" sizes="(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24799" class="wp-caption-text">Electoral Register for the Parliamentary Borough of Kensington (1927)</figcaption></figure>
Jacintha had chosen to give Michal the father’s surname on the birth certificate. Who was Tunnard-Moore?
<h3>Thomas Tunnard-Moore (1904-1984)</h3>
“And then there was Prosper at Oxford, with his – as usual – numerous Oxford friends, some of whom became my friends as well.” Jacintha Buddicom
The Buddicom family had been connected to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasenose_College,_Oxford">Brasenose College</a>, University of Oxford since a great-grandfather, Robert Joseph Buddicom had attended in 1833. Jacintha met Thomas Charles Poynder Tunnard-Moore (and her other lover, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">the Earl of Cardigan</a>) via her brother, Prosper Buddicom (1904-1968).
<figure id="attachment_24721" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24721" style="width: 320px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-24721" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Cini-and-thomas-Tunnard-Moore-bio-father-of-Michal-Tack-nee-Burke-copy.jpeg?resize=320%2C217&ssl=1" alt="" width="320" height="217" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24721" class="wp-caption-text">Buddicom and Tunnard-Moore c. 1926</figcaption></figure>
Jacintha reputedly had many “admirers” and was “adept at keeping a stream of enthusiastic suitors at arms length” until she fell in love with Tunnard-Moore who had a privileged background. His family resided at <a href="https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI12620">Frampton Hall</a>, in Lincolnshire. 
Tunnard-Moore’s maternal line were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian_people">Anglo-Indians</a>. His mother and grandmother had both been born in India where his grandfather, Reverend Leopold Poynder (1818-1904) served as a chaplain (1847-66). Poynder’s diary and memoirs record <a href="https://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=IAMS032-002303574&context=L&vid=IAMS_VU2&search_scope=LSCOP_BL&tab=local&lang=en_US">his experiences</a> during the 1857 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857">Indian Mutiny</a> in Bareilly (<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">Orwell’s father</a> served here as an Opium Agent in the latter part of the 19th century).
<figure id="attachment_24720" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24720" style="width: 320px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-24720" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Guiny-Cini-and-copy.jpeg?resize=320%2C238&ssl=1" alt="" width="320" height="238" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24720" class="wp-caption-text">Jacintha Buddicom with her sister, Guiny. Can you identify anyone?</figcaption></figure>
Tunnard-Moore, like his Poynder ancestors, attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charterhouse_School">Charterhouse </a>from 1918-1921 and was in <a href="https://www.charterhouse.org.uk/school-life/houses/gownboys">Gownboys House</a>. He appears to have had a non-eventful time at the school and does not seem to have held any positions in sporting teams or societies. 
Tunnard-Moore applied to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalen_College,_Oxford">Magdalen College</a> at the University of Oxford on the 25 April 1922. He had not yet sat responsions (exams taken prior to matriculation) but hoped to read for a History degree. Students could submit an essay in support of their application, or alternatively, they could offer a ‘special subject’. Tunnard-Moore offered Chemistry. The books he studied in preparation for his application included Virgil’s Aeneid (Books I & II) and, ironically considering he would dessert his pregnant girlfriend, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartuffe">Molière’s, Tartuffe</a>.
In his first year at Magdalen, Tunnard-Moore read for Prelims in Agriculture. His tutor was <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp101020/malcolm-henry-mackeith">Malcolm Henry MacKeith</a> (1895-1942) and he roomed with <a href="http://www.thepeerage.com/p49324.htm">Godfrey Sturdy Incledon Webber</a> (1904-1986) an aristocrat who became the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sheriffs_of_London">Sheriff of London</a> in 1968 after rising to <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp88924/godfrey-sturdy-incledon-webber">the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel</a> during the war. In his second and third years, Tunnard-Moore read French for the Pass degree course. In his final term he was tutored by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Chute_(priest)">Anthony William Chute</a>.
Tunnard-Moore played hockey for his college and is sitting at the front on the right in this photo the 1924-25 season.
<figure id="attachment_23555" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23555" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23555 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925.jpg?resize=800%2C664&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="664" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C664&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C415&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C637&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1275&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1700&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tunnard-Moore-1925-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23555" class="wp-caption-text">Hockey XI 1924/5 in Cloisters – courtesy of Magdalen College Archives</figcaption></figure>
The relationship had blossomed by 1926 into something that Buddicom considered serious. Her “love” was not practically reciprocated and Tunnard-Moore fled the country on learning she was pregnant, possibly due to parental pressure. There have been suggestions that he absconded with a male lover.
Tunnard-Moore’s obituary reveals he was a student and lecturer at “various continental universities” between 1927-30. He was awarded a Master of Arts from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Montpellier">University of Montpellier </a>in 1930. He is listed, in the Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, as having gained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oxford on the 21 December 1928 suggesting he was not abroad for three years.
During the next decade, Tunnard-Moore was a schoolmaster, farmer and businessman before commencing a position at the outbreak of World War II with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Council">British Council</a>. 
Like the <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/">Earl of Cardigan</a>, Tunnard-Moore was wealthy enough to afford a passion for expensive automobiles. He was in partnership with ex-Etonian, <a href="https://klemcoll.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/the-grimace-of-concentration/">Robert Arbuthnot</a> (1914-1946) a gay racing-car driver from <a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Arbuthnot_Latham">a banking family</a>, who owned a car restoration business, High Street Motors in London and Watford.
In 1941, Tunnard-Moore purchased a <a href="https://www.bugattirevue.com/revue47/rothschild.htm">1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic</a> from another rich son of a banker, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Rothschild,_3rd_Baron_Rothschild">Victor Rothschild</a>. He sold it to Arbuthnot who parted with it in 1944, just two years before he was killed in a motor accident. It has been sold many times since and continues to <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/peter-mullin-muses-winning-1936-004804830.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFzqBu3ZQbNR7rY27NXwwSqCZKdqH9Cax-TDhGs9n0OC3WGO1JCoKq9ewLhHLPbbIAcH6Azo6zG0XiHZ1AU0_bVuKazlMSaBYDmNMowM19RFF6aV1nPew1m0d-tr-xuQMFh_7vom65RhI6QGnvttdOgXgORSYAClDm8_5eITcetN">win prizes at vintage car shows</a>.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/1936-bugatti-type-57sc-atlantic/'><img width="800" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic.jpeg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic.jpeg?w=800&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic.jpeg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/1936-bugatti-type-57sc-atlantic-2/'><img width="800" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic-2.jpeg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic-2.jpeg?w=800&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic-2.jpeg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1936-Bugatti-Type-57SC-Atlantic-2.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
Tunnard-Moore and Arbuthnot were friends, at the very least, and enjoyed a privileged life with opportunities for excess. This came with consequences. Jacintha suffered due to her relationship with Tunnard-Moore but Miss Violet Robson (interestingly, also known as Vera Holtman) fared much worse.
<figure id="attachment_24994" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24994" style="width: 430px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24994 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Citizen-20_July_1936-e1693719922893.png?resize=430%2C860&ssl=1" alt="" width="430" height="860" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Citizen-20_July_1936-e1693719922893.png?w=430&ssl=1 430w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Citizen-20_July_1936-e1693719922893.png?resize=250%2C500&ssl=1 250w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Citizen-20_July_1936-e1693719922893.png?resize=400%2C800&ssl=1 400w" sizes="(max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24994" class="wp-caption-text">Citizen, 20 July, 1936</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The British Council</h2>
Tunnard-Moore worked for the British Council between 1939-1948. He was in charge of the Council’s Educational Appointments department from 1940 and was appointed Director, Dominions and India in the Empire Division in 1945.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Angus_Gillan">Sir James Angus Gillan</a> (1885-1981), who headed the Commonwealth and Empire Division of the British Council (1941-1949), was an alumni of Magdalen College and employed Tunnard-Moore as his assistant. In late 1946, while working in this capacity, Tunnard-Moore negotiated important meetings with the “wary rather than enthusiastic” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru">Jawaharlal Nehru</a>, who became India’s first Prime Minister in 1947. Ultimately, with Nehru’s blessing, the British Council was able to establish a significant role in an independent India.
<figure id="attachment_24745" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24745" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24745 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GO-at-microphone.jpg?resize=500%2C496&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="496" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GO-at-microphone.jpg?resize=500%2C496&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GO-at-microphone.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GO-at-microphone.jpg?w=768&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24745" class="wp-caption-text">Orwell at the BBC c. 1942</figcaption></figure>
Did Orwell come in contact with Tunnard-Moore during the war? We do not know but considering Orwell worked as BBC Talks Assistant/Producer, writing and programming propaganda for broadcast into India during 1941-1943, they shared overlapping professional and literary circles. 
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._W._F._Tomlin">Eric Walter Frederick Tomlin </a>(1913-1918) was friends with T.S. Eliot and while he was “doing some propaganda work for the BBC” learned of “a newly-formed organisation called the British Council” whose “aim was to counter Axis influences and propaganda”. He quotes from a letter Eliot (who was employed by the British Council) wrote to him on the 8 April 1940:
Dear Tomlin,
Some remarks I made, without mentioning your name, in writing to the British Council, have elicited a reply from someone there named T. P. Tunnard-Moore, whom I have never met, and whose name is not on the letterhead, so I don’t quite know what his position is. But the point is that he says the British Council has now received permission to send out men down to 25, and, he adds, ‘even to extract them from the army if their qualifications are sufficiently outstanding. So send your man along, or let him write, but don’t let him construe this as a promise .
If you want to write to him, mention that this came through correspondence with me, and also that I should be glad to be one of the people to speak for you if necessary.
Yours ever,
T.S. Eliot.
<figure id="attachment_24981" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24981" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24981 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BBC.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="450" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BBC.jpeg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BBC.jpeg?resize=500%2C281&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BBC.jpeg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BBC.jpeg?w=976&ssl=1 976w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24981" class="wp-caption-text">T.S. Eliot is seated in fron of Orwell at the BBC 1941</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Empson">William Empson</a> (1906-1984) also knew Tunnard-Moore and Orwell. “Bill” Empson had met Orwell (and his wife Hetta) on a course for new employees famously known as the “Liars School of the BBC”. They became firm friends, working alongside each other for the next two years.
Empson hosted parties attended by many literary figures, BBC and British Council employees. He also <a href="https://archive.org/details/selectedletterso0000emps/page/147/mode/1up?view=theater&q=Tunnard+Moore">corresponded with Tunnard-Moore </a>in an attempt to gain a position with the British Council in early September, 1945. Although purely (but deliciously) coincidental, Empson had written to Orwell just 10 days before about <a href="https://archive.org/details/selectedletterso0000emps/page/146/mode/1up?view=theater&q=Animal+Farm">perceptions of “Tory propaganda” in </a><a href="https://archive.org/details/selectedletterso0000emps/page/146/mode/1up?view=theater&q=Animal+Farm">Animal Farm</a>.
<figure id="attachment_24818" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24818" style="width: 180px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-24818" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/William_Empson_cropped.jpg?resize=180%2C270&ssl=1" alt="" width="180" height="270" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24818" class="wp-caption-text">Empson c. 1930s</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Further Biographical details</h3>
After resigning from the British Council in 1948, Tunnard-Moore became the Managing Director of Moore & Tucker, Ltd.. During this year he successfully <a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US2446030A/en?inventor=Tunnard-Moore+Thomas+C+Poynder">patented a plate clamp</a>.
<figure id="attachment_24746" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24746" style="width: 366px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-24746" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?resize=366%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="366" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?resize=366%2C500&ssl=1 366w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?resize=586%2C800&ssl=1 586w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?resize=768%2C1049&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?resize=1124%2C1536&ssl=1 1124w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/patent.png?w=1196&ssl=1 1196w" sizes="(max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24746" class="wp-caption-text">Plate clamp patent 1948</figcaption></figure>
In late October 1949, the 45- year-old Tunnard-Moore married a woman over twenty years younger, Valerie Mary Tucker (1926-2005), at Christchurch priory. A son, Thomas Tunnard-Moore (1951-1969), was born in 1951.
<figure id="attachment_24840" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24840" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-24840" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Middlesex-Independent-and-W.-London-Star.png?resize=500%2C309&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="309" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Middlesex-Independent-and-W.-London-Star.png?resize=500%2C309&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Middlesex-Independent-and-W.-London-Star.png?w=550&ssl=1 550w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24840" class="wp-caption-text">Middlesex Independent and W. London Star, 14 October 1949</figcaption></figure>
Tunnard-Moore was a member of <a href="https://www.savileclub.co.uk/history-of-the-club">The Savile Club</a> (as were HG Wells and Compton Mackenzie who Orwell knew) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marylebone_Cricket_Club">M.C.C.. </a>He resided at 118 Cromwell Road, SW7 until moving to Guernsey. His only son died, aged 18, in a car accident returning home from a Christmas party. 
<figure id="attachment_25002" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25002" style="width: 536px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-25002" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-03-at-4.16.33-pm.png?resize=536%2C322&ssl=1" alt="" width="536" height="322" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-03-at-4.16.33-pm.png?w=536&ssl=1 536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-03-at-4.16.33-pm.png?resize=500%2C300&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-25002" class="wp-caption-text">Evening Chronicle, 24 December, 1969</figcaption></figure>
Tragically Michal, the daughter he had abandoned in 1927, was also killed in a car accident in 1995.
After a <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/article/1984-12-15/28/8.html#start%3D1984-01-01%26end%3D1985-01-01%26terms%3DThomas%20Charles%20Poynder%20Tunnard-Moore%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/Thomas+Charles+Poynder+Tunnard-Moore/w:1984-01-01%7E1985-01-01/1">“long illness borne with courage and laughter”</a> Tunnard-Moore died in the final month of 1984. Jacintha lived for another decade, dying in 1993, aged 92. She never married and had no other children.
<h2>Conclusion and a Little Speculation</h2>
The story of Eric Blair’s connection to the Buddicom family is important to understanding the genesis of his evolution into the “FAMOUS WRITER” he dreamt of becoming in childhood conversations with Jacintha. 
Recovering the barely discernible timeline of life events, from when he departed Burma in 1927 until arriving in Paris almost a year later, is far more important to understanding his motivations for becoming a writer very conscious of social class than previously envisaged by biographers. The life drama that Eric Blair experienced during this summer in 1927, culminating in his announcement <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/">while holidaying in Cornwall</a> with his family that he intended to become a writer, is particularly in need of further analysis.
One significant example, although speculative, is that Jacintha knew of the Baby Clinic and Hospital through information provided by Orwell’s mother or aunt. There is strong circumstantial evidence this may have been the case. If correct, it seems likely Orwell knew Jacintha had a child which may have led him to believe she may marry him and move to Burma where nobody would know the child was illegitimate. The fact that Ida was at Ticklerton Court three days after Michal was born and Eric Blair had been with Nellie in Paris by early August 1927 are important pieces of the jigsaw.
If this is indeed can be proven, how does it change the representation of Orwell that has emerged since the 2006 in regards to his vexed relationship with Jacintha Buddicom? What does the new information about the Earl of Cardigan and Tunnard-Moore tell us about Orwell’s attitude to class? 
More anon.
REFERENCES
Bowker, Gordon, The Trail That Never Ends: Reflections of a Biografiend, Finlay Publisher, 2010
Buddicom, Jacintha, Eric & Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell, Frewin, 1974
Buddicom, Jacintha & Venables, Dione (2006) Eric and Us: The Postscript Edition, Finlay
Buddicom, Lilian (1927) Diary (unpublished)
Byrne, Alice, The British Council in India, 1945-1955: Preserving “old relationships under new forms”, Laurent DORNEL et Michael PARSONS, Fins d’empires / Ends of Empires , 5, Presses de l’Université de Pau et des pays de l’Adour, pp.119-135, 2016, Figures et perspectives ; Espaces, Frontières, Métissages, 2-35311-077-0. ffhal-01420450
Charterhouse Archives
City of London Archives
Collette, Christine, For Labour and for Women: The Women’s Labour League 1906–18, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, London: Penguin, 1992
Crook, J. Mordaunt, Brasenose: The Biography of an Oxford College, Oxford University Press, 2009. 574pp.
Eastment, Diana Jane, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43592.pdf">The Policies and Position of the British Council from the Outbreak of War to 1950</a>, University of Leeds, School of History, Thesis (Doctor-of Philosophy), 1982
Empson, William, Selected letters of William Empson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 pp. 147-149
Empson, Jacob, Hetta and William: A Memoir of a Bohemian Marriage, London: Author House, 2012
Evening Chronicle, 24 December, 1969
Gross, Miriam (ed.), The World of George Orwell, Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1971
Haffenden, John, William Empson: Volume I – Among the Mandarins, Oxford University Press, 2005
Haffenden, John, William Empson: Volume II – Against the Christians, Oxford University Press, 2006
Magdalen College Archives
Middlesex Independent and W. London Star, 14 October 1949
<div class="csl-bib-body">
<div class="csl-entry" data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f">MacDonald, Ishbel, Correspondence 1930-1935, Labour History Archive & Study Centre</div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f"> </div>
<div class="csl-entry" data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f">MacDonald, James Ramsay, <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.463509/mode/2up">Margaret Ethel MacDonald</a>, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913</div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f"> </div>
<div class="csl-entry" data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f">Martin, W. J., “Vital Statistics of the County of London in the Years 1901 to 1951”, British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, Vol. 9, no. 3, 1955, pp. 126–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40482500. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023.</div>
</div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f"> </div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f">M.B., “<a href="https://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/data/VOLUME049-1912/page366-volume49-2ndnovember1912.pdf">The Midwife</a>”, British Journal of Nursing Supplement, Vol. 49, 2 Nov. 1912, pp. 365-66</div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f"> </div>
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f">Moore, Darcy, “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/42790259/Orwells_Aunt_Nellie">Orwell’s Aunt Nellie</a>”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No.2 pp. 30-44</div>
<div class="csl-bib-body">
<div data-csl-entry-id="b318e24e-c708-3513-8f18-745bca1d054f"> </div>
</div>
Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, 21 December 1928
Rudd, Jill and Gough, Val (eds), Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Optimist Reformer, University of Iowa Press, 1999
Simony, Lauriane, Le premier British Council en Birmanie entre 1948 et 1955: politique linguistique et diplomatie culturelle au lendemain de l’indépendance, Sciences de l’Homme et Société, 2015. ffdumas-02184601f
Swanage Times & Directory, 17 March 1923
Times, 15 December, 1984
Tomlin, E.W.F, T.S. Eliot: A Friendship, London: Routledge, 1988, p130
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 24 November 1930
<h2>Acknowledgements</h2>
Archivists who are willing to genuinely assist with research challenges make a huge difference, especially when those documents have not been digitised. Warm thanks are due to Rebecca Grafton, Stephen Witkowski and Emily Jennings.
I am extremely grateful to Melanie Scott for sharing what she knows about her grandmother, Jacintha Buddicom, Her generosity and kindness in granting permission to use the photographs and documents in her possession is very greatly appreciated. Information provided over several years by Dione Venables and conversations with Liam Hunt have also proven invaluable. 

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<pubDate>Sat, 09 Sep 2023 10:02:47 +0200</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXXa06INdN_5-qbel3Iu4GjH</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[E. Limouzin]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXUnsQ--vHmwQK8qfTAM-Smm</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/uAzbVD2QVxBz-EUT1WoX2cb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="E. Limouzin" title="E. Limouzin"> “I have begun the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charterhouse_of_Parma">Chartreuse de Parme</a>, but have read only a few pages as yet, for I saw a reference in some work to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince">The Prince</a> and, as I had never read it, I have begun that also and am about half way through it. I suppose you have read it long ago, probably at school. It is rather more historical than I had expected and interesting if only as some kind of picture of the Renaissance period. There is a very long Introduction in the edition I have (a French one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Lanti">E’s.</a>) which annoyed me when I looked at it, but I found it quite enlightening in the end. I don’t know whether you dislike introductions; to me they are irritating as a rule, because they hold one from the real text and yet one doesn’t like to miss them. But in this edition of The Prince, what is more annoying is the addition of footnotes by Queen Christine, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, who appears to have ended her days in Italy.”
 Aunt Nellie, letter to Orwell (1933)
Only one letter written in English from <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/01/21/orwell-paris-aunt-nellie/">Orwell’s favourite aunt </a>survives. It provides a tantalising glimpse into the diverse range of topics – literature, journals, money, sex roles, Paris, socialism, gas masks, pacifism, friends, Americans etc. – that interested aunt and nephew c. 1933. One cannot even begin to speculate what the lost record of their complete correspondence would reveal but it is demonstrably obvious that Nellie Limouzin was a seminal influence on the young Eric Blair!
“Aunt Nellie” was the sister of Orwell’s mother, Ida Blair (1875-1943) and was known by many names during her lifetime. Official records show she was christened Ellen Kate Limouzin on the 21st December 1870 in Moulmein, Burma and was Helene Kate Limouzin-Adam at her death in Wandsworth, London, aged 79. Occasionally she was known as Hélène when living in Paris. Theatre programmes reveal that her stage name was Elaine Limouzin and least well-known of all, she wrote articles and letters in Esperanto under the pseudonym, E. K. L..
Mostly though, she was just “Nellie”.
Nellie was a feminist, suffragette, socialist, activist, prisoner, communist, writer, editor, teacher, actor, vaudevillian and Esperantist. She was an inveterate writer of letters to journal and newspaper editors on a vast range of topic. It has now be become evident, from my recent discovery of two books published by Oxford University Press, that she was also a literary scholar.
<figure id="attachment_24852" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24852" style="width: 430px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="wp-image-24852 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scenes-1916-e1693632949842-430x800.png?resize=430%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="430" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scenes-1916-e1693632949842.png?resize=430%2C800&ssl=1 430w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scenes-1916-e1693632949842.png?resize=269%2C500&ssl=1 269w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scenes-1916-e1693632949842.png?resize=768%2C1429&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scenes-1916-e1693632949842.png?w=794&ssl=1 794w" sizes="(max-width: 430px) 100vw, 430px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24852" class="wp-caption-text">George Eliot, Scenes of a Clerical Life, OUP, 1916</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Oxford University Press</h3>
In 1916, Oxford University Press published new editions of two novels with “notes by E. Limouzin”: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eliot">George Eliot</a>‘s first novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life">Scenes of a Clerical Life</a>, with an introduction by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Warde_Fowler">W. Warde Fowler </a>(1847-1921); and, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gaskell">Elizabeth C. Gaskell</a>‘s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_(novel)">Cranford</a>, which included an introduction by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Shorter">Clement Shorter </a>(1857-1926).
Warde was an <a href="https://archive.org/search?query=William+Warde+Fowler&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221916%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221925%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221963%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221967%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221971%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221981%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222010%22&and%5B%5D=year%3A%222022%22">ornithologist and historian</a> with an established reputation as an expert on ancient Roman religion and festivals. He was a tutor at <a href="https://archives.lincoln.ox.ac.uk/records/LC/MS/WWF">Lincoln College, Oxford</a>. After the carnage wrought during First World War he “declared his sympathy with the international outlook of Labour” (ODNB).
Shorter was a journalist interested in popularising literature with a talent for finding wealthy patrons. He founded The Sphere, an illustrated weekly in 1900 and The Tatler, a year later. He contributed a weekly “literary letter” in the former, on whatever he pleased, until he died (ODNB).
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24854" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page.jpg?resize=479%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="479" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page.jpg?resize=479%2C800&ssl=1 479w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page.jpg?resize=299%2C500&ssl=1 299w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/title-page.jpg?w=681&ssl=1 681w" sizes="(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
E. Limouzin contributed 35 pages of notes on Gaskell’s novel and 43 pages for Eliot’s, Scenes of a Clerical Life. There are no other Oxford University Press publications that have contributions by Limouzin.
How can we be certain this literary scholar was indeed Aunt Nellie?
<h3>92 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square</h3>
A slim file on Cranford survives in the OUP Archive. It reveals that Miss E. Limouzin lived at 92 Charlotte Street in London and was most likely a freelance editor/annotator. Although this is quite convincing supporting evidence for identifying Orwell’s Aunt Nellie as having a previously unknown career as a literary scholar, the address is unfamiliar.
My previous research into Limouzin’s residences had been quite extensive as it was essential to discover when she had moved from London to Paris. Reviewing my notes revealed there was a gap for the years 1916-1918 although I had assumed she was at 195 Ladbroke Grove. Nellie had leased this apartment for every year from at least 1907 until April 1928. During this period she advertised for flatmates in suffragette newspapers and may have sublet, including when she moved to Paris c. 1925-26.
In 1916, 92 Charlotte St was a <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cc833560-36b1-37b4-8a83-00ec19bf9c66">Y.W.C.A.</a> hostel for female theatrical employees who were out of work or poorly paid. Limouzin may have been employed here in some capacity or possibly was down on her luck.
Limouzin had been listed on the 1901 census as an “actress” and the last evidence of her performing on the stage was in 1921 where she was reviewed as playing her part in <a href="https://theatricalia.com/play/2r3/at-mrs-beams/production/66k">At Mrs Beam’s</a> “successfully”. During 1916 she appeared in All-of-a-Sudden-Peggy at The Lyceum in Ipswich.
The 1921 census has a lengthy list of unemployed, or just “badly paid” actresses, musicians and performers residing at the hostel. An advertisement from the same year confirms the address was a “theatrical hostel” in need of donations to support their clientele.
<figure id="attachment_24873" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24873" style="width: 715px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-24873" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2058.jpg?resize=715%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="715" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2058.jpg?resize=715%2C800&ssl=1 715w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2058.jpg?resize=447%2C500&ssl=1 447w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2058.jpg?w=738&ssl=1 738w" sizes="(max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24873" class="wp-caption-text">The Gentlewoman, 17th December 1921</figcaption></figure>
The hostel can be identified from many classified and other advertisements after 1911. For example, in 1914 a woman endeavours to to find employment as an assistantant to a “Conjurer and Illusionist”. She has her “own smart up-to-date wardrobe” and “perfect figure”. Her address as 92 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square.
<figure id="attachment_24874" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24874" style="width: 740px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24874 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2059.jpg?resize=740%2C384&ssl=1" alt="" width="740" height="384" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2059.jpg?w=740&ssl=1 740w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_2059.jpg?resize=500%2C259&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24874" class="wp-caption-text">The Stage, 23 April, 1914</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_24916" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24916" style="width: 362px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-24916" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/The-Stage-27-February-1919.jpg?resize=362%2C515&ssl=1" alt="" width="362" height="515" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/The-Stage-27-February-1919.jpg?w=362&ssl=1 362w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/The-Stage-27-February-1919.jpg?resize=351%2C500&ssl=1 351w" sizes="(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24916" class="wp-caption-text">The Stage, 27 February, 1919</figcaption></figure>
In 1919, it costs five shillings per annum to become a member. One of the benefits, especially while on tour, luggage could be stored in a locked-up room. The “Committee” had the “right to veto” and undesirable applications for membership.
It is interesting to note that prior to becoming a theatrical hostel in 1911, this address had been the ‘Home of the Guardian Angels’, an establishment for unmarried women, over 14 years of age, who were pregnant for the first time. They were able to stay here until about to give birth. The remaining lease at the address had been sold to generate cash flow for the home which was then re-located.
<figure id="attachment_24892" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24892" style="width: 382px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24892 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/London-Gazette-8-July-1911.png?resize=382%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="382" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/London-Gazette-8-July-1911.png?resize=382%2C800&ssl=1 382w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/London-Gazette-8-July-1911.png?resize=239%2C500&ssl=1 239w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/London-Gazette-8-July-1911.png?w=664&ssl=1 664w" sizes="(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24892" class="wp-caption-text">London Gazette, 8 July, 1911</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Context</h3>
“One of these independently minded women, Aunt Nellie Limouzin, would have more influence on his literary and political development than any other member of his family, and perhaps more than the teachers he encountered at his various schools.” Gordon Bowker p.12
The growing body of evidence that Nellie Limouzin was the most important intellectual, literary and political influence on the young Orwell is very convincing.
During the war years, and in the period immediately after when Orwell attended Eton, he had many theatrical experiences with his aunt. The literary salon of sorts she hosted at her apartment in Notting Hill, her friendship with H.G. Wells, G.K. Chesterton, Edith Nesbit and Conrad Noel; her flirtation with communism after the Russian Revolution and passion for Esperanto were all important formative experiences for Orwell.
These two novels, published in 1916, demonstrate Limouzin was also a literary scholar with sufficient talent to work for Oxford University Press on two of the most significant female novelists of the 19th century. Limouzin must have laboured over these notes during 1915-16, as the war in Europe worsened, while her nephew was working harder than ever in the “scholarship factory” that was St Cyprian’s.
Ironically, Orwell does not appear to have read Gaskell’s books (he certainly did not mention them and owned none) and was not all enthusiastic about George Eliot, saying to Julian Symon’s in a letter (21 March, 1948):
“I read your article on George Eliot in the Windmill with interest, but I must say I’ve never been able to read G. E. herself. No doubt I’ll get round to it someday.”
Less than two years later, Orwell was dead. His library did contain three of Eliot’s books, including her first novel, Scenes of a Clerical Life.
REFERENCES
Bowker, Gordon, George Orwell, London: Abacus, 2004
Cockin, Katharine, Women and Theatre in the Age of Suffrage: The Pioneer Players, 1911-1925 ,London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2001
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, second edition, 1992
Eliot, George, Scenes of a Clerical Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916
Gaskell, Elizabeth C., Cranford, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916
London Gazette, 8 July, 1911
Matheson, P. E., and Myfanwy Lloyd, “Fowler, William Warde (1847–1921), historian and ornithologist”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 1 Sep. 2023. https://www-oxforddnb-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33229.
Moore, Darcy, “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/42790259/Orwells_Aunt_Nellie">Orwell’s Aunt Nellie</a>”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No.2 pp. 30-44
Orwell, George, A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 10, Secker & Warburg, 1998
The Evening Star and Daily Herald, 7 March, 1916
The Gentlewoman, 17 December, 1921
The Stage, 23 April, 1914
The Stage, 27 February, 1919
The Stage, 3 March 1921
Zilboorg, Caroline, “Shorter, Clement King (1857–1926), journalist and magazine editor”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 1 Sep. 2023. https://www-oxforddnb-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36076.
<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
Sincere thanks to <a href="https://www.brickwallgenealogy.com/">Kathryn Le Gay Brereton</a> for her willingness to undertake extra research on short notice and to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/329089.Phil_Baker">Phil Baker </a>for his generous assistance with sources at the British Library.
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:28:11 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell & the Earl of Cardigan]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXXiOVJJc3Elzqbel3Iu4GjH</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/sOY80vDSwRX_gz-lMXLZbcb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell & the Earl of Cardigan" title="Orwell & the Earl of Cardigan"> “She was the mistress of a peer of the Realm for over thirty years but would not marry him when the subject was raised because his intellect was not, apparently, equal to his sex drive.” Eric & Us (2006) 

Eric Blair, better known by his pen-name George Orwell, proposed marriage on more than one occasion to his childhood companion, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacintha_Buddicom">Jacintha Buddicom</a>. She refused him but many years later, in a letter to a relative, regretted not being ready for “betrothal” as “Eric was less imperfect than anyone else I ever met”.
There is much more to the story.
Buddicom published Eric & Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell nearly fifty years ago. Her book detailed the close companionship she and her siblings had shared with the young Eric Blair. It concealed important information and when Dione Venables, Buddicom’s cousin and literary executor, re-issued Eric & Us (2006) she included a postscript containing several revelations.
One of the lesser of these, that Buddicom had a long-term affair with an un-named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_of_the_realm">peer of the Realm</a>, is deserving of further examination considering the invisible web of interpersonal networks and thematic importance of social class in Orwell’s writing.
<h2>“The lower-upper-middle class”</h2>
Orwell commenced his education at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College">Eton College</a> in the summer of 1917. He was one of the intellectual elite, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Scholar">King’s Scholar (KS</a>), at a school which educated the British ruling class and dated back to the fifteenth century. He was very conscious of only being able to attend this institution with a scholarship and later wrote about becoming “an odious little snob” as a result of the experience:
“At school I was in a difficult position, for I was among boys who, for the most part, were much richer than myself, and I only went to an expensive public school because I happened to win a scholarship. This is the common experience of boys of the lower-upper-middle class, the sons of clergymen, Anglo-Indian officials, etc., and the effects it had on me were probably the usual ones. On the one hand it made me cling tighter than ever to my gentility; on the other hand it filled me with resentment against the boys whose parents were richer than mine and who took care to let me know it. I despised anyone who was not describable as a “gentleman,” but also I hated the hoggishly rich, especially those who had grown rich too recently. The correct and elegant thing, I felt, was to be of gentle birth but to have no money. This is part of the credo of the lower-upper-middle class.” The Road to Wigan Pier
In an odd coincidence, that “peer of the Realm”, Jacintha Buddicom’s long-term lover, commenced his schooling at Eton with Orwell. Half-a-dozen names from E.A. Blair, on the list of new boys who arrived as a generation were slaughtered on the western front, was <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Brudenell-Bruce,_7th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury">Chandos Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce</a>. Convention dictated he be addressed as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Cardigan">Earl of Cardigan</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom">courtesy title</a> employed prior to becoming <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Ailesbury">Marquess of Ailesbury</a> on the death of his father.
<figure id="attachment_23486" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23486" style="width: 532px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="wp-image-23486 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=532%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="532" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=532%2C800&ssl=1 532w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=333%2C500&ssl=1 333w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?resize=768%2C1154&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Eton-College-Register-New-Boys-Summer-1917.png?w=930&ssl=1 930w" sizes="(max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23486" class="wp-caption-text">Eton College Chronicle, “New Boys-Summer 1917”</figcaption></figure>
This is an unexpected story of strangely perpendicular, parallel lives. Like Orwell, Cardigan looked back fondly on his Edwardian childhood:
“I was born in the reign of King Edward VII and, ever since, I have toyed with the notion that this brief reign was the happiest in English history. There are grounds for so thinking; for Edwardian England was a land of security, of continuity and (for the average man) of gradually growing prosperity (from Setting My Watch By The Sundial, 1970)
He remembered the death of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII">King Edward VII </a>(and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brudenell,_7th_Earl_of_Cardigan">inglorious ancestor</a>) in his memoir published sixty years after the funeral:
“.… alas, good King Edward was destined to die in the year 1910. My final memory is of his funeral; for we were invited lo London by a person then known to me as “”the old lady””, whose house in Park Lane overlooked the route of the impending funeral procession. She was in fact Adeline, Countess of Cardigan, whose husband (being our distant cousin) had gained immortality by his leadership of the Light Brigade at Balaclava.” (ibid)
A photograph of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Brudenell-Bruce,_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury">Cardigan’s parents</a> taken for the coronation of George V the following year highlights their elevated social status.
<figure id="attachment_23698" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23698" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-23698" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/George_William_James_Chandos_Brundenell-Bruce_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury_and_Sydney_Marchioness_of_Ailesbury_nee_Madden.jpg?resize=500%2C627&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="627" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/George_William_James_Chandos_Brundenell-Bruce_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury_and_Sydney_Marchioness_of_Ailesbury_nee_Madden.jpg?resize=638%2C800&ssl=1 638w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/George_William_James_Chandos_Brundenell-Bruce_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury_and_Sydney_Marchioness_of_Ailesbury_nee_Madden.jpg?resize=399%2C500&ssl=1 399w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/George_William_James_Chandos_Brundenell-Bruce_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury_and_Sydney_Marchioness_of_Ailesbury_nee_Madden.jpg?w=650&ssl=1 650w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23698" class="wp-caption-text">The Marquess and Marchioness of Ailesbury wearing robes for the Coronation in 1911 (Creative Commons)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">Orwell’s parents </a>were “lower-upper-middle class” but boasted a grander ancestry built on <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/11/17/orwells-scottish-ancestry-slavery-2/">the profits of slavery</a>. In the mid-18th century Orwell’s ancestors had been wealthy enough to commission <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Reynolds">Sir Joshua Reynolds</a> to spend five years completing a portrait celebrating their status and privilege. Those days ended with the cessation of slavery. Orwell’s father, the tenth and youngest child in his family, retired on a modest government pension in 1912.
<figure id="attachment_23812" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23812" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-23812 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds.jpeg?resize=800%2C570&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="570" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C570&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=500%2C356&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C547&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1094&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1458&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Reynolds-scaled.jpeg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23812" class="wp-caption-text">The Honorable Henry Fane with Inigo Jones and Charles Blair by Sir Joshua Reynolds</figcaption></figure>
In his memoir, Setting My Watch By The Sundial, Brudenell-Bruce illustrates the extreme social snobbery of his own family in a chapter titled, Of “High Society”:
“I had an Oxford friend who, being my senior by a year or two, had served in the Navy during the late years of the Kaiser war. And – though he would seldom speak of it – he had on one occasion shown such gallantry that the Albert Medal (that rare decoration) had been awarded to him. 
To me, an admirable and an interesting young man; but how could I have introduced him into our family circle? My mother might well have enquired as to where his family’s estate was situated: the reply would have been that his father was a village schoolmaster in a remote part of Wales – and this could have brought conversation to a grinding halt!” (from Setting My Watch By The Sundial, 1970, p. 23)
Cardigan was a full fee paying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College#Oppidans">Oppidan </a>between <a href="https://archives.etoncollege.com/Filename.ashx?tableName=ta_registers_photos_2&columnName=filename&recordId=80">1917 and 1922</a>. Blair departed Eton in 1921, attending a cramming school in preparation for the Indian Civil Service exams. By late 1922 he was serving in Burma, with the Indian Imperial Police, one of the least desirable postings in the British empire. Cardigan attended the University of Oxford where he became friends with Prosper Buddicom, Jacintha’s brother.
Social class is an important concept in Orwell’s writing and life story. The Eton Register, published the year before Eric Blair assumed his famous pseudonym in 1933, contrasts their status.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=23482'><img width="611" height="83" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.09.49-pm-e1688271381308.png?fit=611%2C83&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.09.49-pm-e1688271381308.png?w=611&ssl=1 611w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.09.49-pm-e1688271381308.png?resize=500%2C68&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 611px) 100vw, 611px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=23483'><img width="660" height="184" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.07.35-pm.png?fit=660%2C184&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.07.35-pm.png?w=660&ssl=1 660w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-02-at-2.07.35-pm.png?resize=500%2C139&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px" /></a>
In 1933 – an era when all one needed to take a flight anywhere (fuel would permit) was the wealth to buy a plane and an empty field – Cardigan published Amateur Pilot, a guide to flying. Orwell published Down and Out in Paris and London.
<figure id="attachment_24626" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24626" style="width: 375px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-24626" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="375" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_1906.png?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24626" class="wp-caption-text">Amateur Pilot, 1933</figcaption></figure>
<h3>The Earl of Cardigan</h3>
While Orwell was in Burma, Lord Cardigan secretly married Joan Houlton Salter (1904-1937) on 5th July 1924 in a registry office in Brentford. The news was reported nearly 12 months later and corresponds with the young aristocrat fleeing his life at Oxford.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-western-morning-news-and-mercury-29-april-1925/'><img width="394" height="734" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Western-Morning-News-and-Mercury-29-April-1925.png?fit=394%2C734&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Western-Morning-News-and-Mercury-29-April-1925.png?w=394&ssl=1 394w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Western-Morning-News-and-Mercury-29-April-1925.png?resize=268%2C500&ssl=1 268w" sizes="(max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/birmingham-daily-gazette-30-april-1925/'><img width="326" height="1598" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Daily-Gazette-30-April-1925.png?fit=326%2C1598&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Daily-Gazette-30-April-1925.png?w=326&ssl=1 326w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Daily-Gazette-30-April-1925.png?resize=102%2C500&ssl=1 102w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Daily-Gazette-30-April-1925.png?resize=163%2C800&ssl=1 163w" sizes="(max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/joan-houlton-ne-salter-marchioness-of-ailesbury/'><img width="617" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joan-Houlton-ne-Salter-Marchioness-of-Ailesbury.jpg?fit=617%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joan-Houlton-ne-Salter-Marchioness-of-Ailesbury.jpg?w=617&ssl=1 617w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joan-Houlton-ne-Salter-Marchioness-of-Ailesbury.jpg?resize=386%2C500&ssl=1 386w" sizes="(max-width: 617px) 100vw, 617px" /></a>
After the press broke the scandal, Cardigan telegrammed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Oxford">Christ Church College</a> apologetically and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Brudenell-Bruce,_6th_Marquess_of_Ailesbury">his father</a> subsequently wrote requesting his son be shown some leniency considering the delicate situation.
It was not the first time The Marquess of Ailesbury corresponded with the college authorities regarding Cardigan’s behaviour. In 1924, he received a letter explaining that they had to <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/send-down">“send Lord Cardigan down”</a> for the remainder of the term. This was just two months prior to Cardigan’s “secret marriage” and it appears he was burning the candle at both ends.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/telegram-29-april-1925/'><img width="800" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?w=1962&ssl=1 1962w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Telegram-29-April-1925.png?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/letter-from-cardigans-father-to-christ-church-college-1st-may-1925/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?w=1512&ssl=1 1512w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-1st-May-1925.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/letter-from-christ-church-to-cardigans-father-15-may-1924-2/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?w=1512&ssl=1 1512w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Christ-Church-to-Cardigans-father-15-May-1924.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/letter-from-cardigans-father-to-christ-church-college-16-may-1924-3/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?w=1512&ssl=1 1512w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Letter-from-Cardigans-father-to-Christ-Church-College-16-May-1924.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<h2></h2>
The married couple went touring the country by car to escape press attention. Subsequently, an attempt to rescue the family reputation was undertaken with a formal wedding ceremony and publicity blitz in the fashion pages of popular magazines. Lieutenant Wilts, his publicist (at least he was c. 1933), provided an essential service for Lord Cardigan and his family.
<figure id="attachment_24401" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24401" style="width: 565px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24401 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="565" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1 565w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?resize=353%2C500&ssl=1 353w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1087&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?resize=1086%2C1536&ssl=1 1086w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?resize=1447%2C2048&ssl=1 1447w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-July-151925-scaled.jpg?w=1809&ssl=1 1809w" sizes="(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24401" class="wp-caption-text">The Sketch, July 15,1925</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Motor Journalism</h2>
Cardigan fashioned a career where he could pursue his passion for motorcars and aeroplanes. Using his aristocratic title to advantage, advertising and writing reviews of new model cars was to become his routine occupation until World War II intervened:
“Motor journalism, in the nineteen-twenties, could be quite an intriguing occupation for many new and unusual cars were being introduced, and quite commonly one might be given one for a long week-end. Normally, one would be expected to take over the demonstration car at its manufacturers’ London showrooms, i.e. in some main thoroughfare such as, perhaps, Oxford Street. And to take over (for example) a supercharged Mercedes, or a sort not seen in England before, and to drive away faultlessly amidst the rush and roar of London traffic-this called for as much skill as even young Cardigan (that enthusiast) was able to muster.” (from Setting My Watch By The Sundial)
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-illustrated-london-news-13-march-1926/'><img width="278" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Illustrated-London-News-13-March-1926.png?fit=278%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Illustrated-London-News-13-March-1926.png?w=608&ssl=1 608w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Illustrated-London-News-13-March-1926.png?resize=174%2C500&ssl=1 174w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Illustrated-London-News-13-March-1926.png?resize=278%2C800&ssl=1 278w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Illustrated-London-News-13-March-1926.png?resize=534%2C1536&ssl=1 534w" sizes="(max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-sphere-26-july-1930/'><img width="800" height="605" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sphere-26-July-1930.png?fit=800%2C605&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sphere-26-July-1930.png?w=1490&ssl=1 1490w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sphere-26-July-1930.png?resize=500%2C378&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sphere-26-July-1930.png?resize=800%2C605&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sphere-26-July-1930.png?resize=768%2C580&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-tatler-1-march-1939/'><img width="565" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?fit=565%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?w=1809&ssl=1 1809w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?resize=353%2C500&ssl=1 353w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1 565w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1087&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?resize=1086%2C1536&ssl=1 1086w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Tatler-1-March-1939-scaled.jpg?resize=1447%2C2048&ssl=1 1447w" sizes="(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-10-hp-talbot/'><img width="565" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?fit=565%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?w=1809&ssl=1 1809w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?resize=353%2C500&ssl=1 353w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1 565w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1087&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?resize=1085%2C1536&ssl=1 1085w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot--scaled.jpg?resize=1447%2C2048&ssl=1 1447w" sizes="(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-10-hp-talbot-2/'><img width="568" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?fit=568%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?w=1819&ssl=1 1819w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?resize=355%2C500&ssl=1 355w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?resize=568%2C800&ssl=1 568w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1081&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?resize=1091%2C1536&ssl=1 1091w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-2-scaled.jpg?resize=1455%2C2048&ssl=1 1455w" sizes="(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-10-hp-talbot-3-2/'><img width="800" height="556" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C556&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?w=2560&ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C348&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C556&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C534&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1068&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1424&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-10-HP-Talbot-3-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
During this period, Brudenell-Bruce wrote reviews in sports publications and published his first book as the Earl of Cardigan. Youth Goes East (1928) chronicled his journey through Europe in a car attained as part of this advertising campaign.
In 1927, the Morris company had decided to replace their familiar models with more powerful cars thought to have great commercial potential. Cardigan was commissioned to bring a new model to the attention of the motorists of Europe. Accompanied by his wife and her brother Henry, he would drive “Miranda” through Europe seeking out the local Morris agent in each of the countries visited.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/lady-cardigan-prepares-a-picnic/'><img width="800" height="487" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lady-Cardigan-prepares-a-picnic.png?fit=800%2C487&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lady-Cardigan-prepares-a-picnic.png?w=1162&ssl=1 1162w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lady-Cardigan-prepares-a-picnic.png?resize=500%2C305&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lady-Cardigan-prepares-a-picnic.png?resize=800%2C487&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Lady-Cardigan-prepares-a-picnic.png?resize=768%2C468&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/pot-hole/'><img width="800" height="503" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pot-hole.png?fit=800%2C503&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pot-hole.png?w=1084&ssl=1 1084w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pot-hole.png?resize=500%2C315&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pot-hole.png?resize=800%2C503&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pot-hole.png?resize=768%2C483&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/henry/'><img width="491" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Henry.png?fit=491%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Henry.png?w=698&ssl=1 698w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Henry.png?resize=307%2C500&ssl=1 307w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Henry.png?resize=491%2C800&ssl=1 491w" sizes="(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/athens/'><img width="484" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Athens.png?fit=484%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Athens.png?w=674&ssl=1 674w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Athens.png?resize=303%2C500&ssl=1 303w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Athens.png?resize=484%2C800&ssl=1 484w" sizes="(max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-courier-and-advertiser-24-april-1928/'><img width="277" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Courier-and-Advertiser-24-April-1928.png?fit=277%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Courier-and-Advertiser-24-April-1928.png?w=518&ssl=1 518w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Courier-and-Advertiser-24-April-1928.png?resize=173%2C500&ssl=1 173w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Courier-and-Advertiser-24-April-1928.png?resize=277%2C800&ssl=1 277w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-daily-mirror-24-april-1928/'><img width="218" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Daily-Mirror-24-April-1928.png?fit=218%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Daily-Mirror-24-April-1928.png?w=388&ssl=1 388w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Daily-Mirror-24-April-1928.png?resize=136%2C500&ssl=1 136w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Daily-Mirror-24-April-1928.png?resize=218%2C800&ssl=1 218w" sizes="(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px" /></a>
In contrast, Orwell, around this time, ended his imperial career in Burma and started going “down and out” in London, then Paris.
<h2>Cardigan and Buddicom</h2>
Cedric Brudenell-Bruce was “the peer of the Realm” with whom Jacintha Buddicom (known as “Cini” to family and friends) had a long-term affair. The timeline of her relationship with Cardigan is unclear. Brudenell-Bruce married three times. Firstly to Joan Salter (1924-1937); Joyce Quennell (1944-1948) and finally Jean Wilson from 1950 until his death in 1974. Buddicom gave birth to an illegitimate child – fathered by another of her brother’s Oxford friends, Thomas Tunnard-Moore (1904-1984) – in July, 1927.
When did their affair commence? The late 1920s – or before, when they were first introduced by Prosper Buddicom?
Buddicom published a book of poetry in the USA anonymously, The Compleat Workes of Cini Willoughby Dering, in 1929. The book is dedicated to “Colin”, her pseudonym for Cedric. Family sources also believe that Cedric “badgered” Jacintha about marrying and although she refused him, remained quite faithful. If this is correct, her poetry published in 1929 suggests she was already in a relationship with Cardigan shortly after her child was born – or that “Colin” is Tunnard-Moore.
<figure id="attachment_24536" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24536" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-24536 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="600" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Buddicom-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24536" class="wp-caption-text">The Compleat Workes of Cini Willoughby Dering, 1929</figcaption></figure>
The closeness of the family connection is revealed by the fact that Cedric Brudenell-Bruce was the godfather of Prosper Buddicom’s own daughter, Jennifer, who was born in July 1937. This was to be a a truly horrible month and year for Cardigan. One imagines he was supported by one of his closest friends, Prosper, at this time of terrible great sadness and (very public) turmoil.
<h2>Suicide</h2>
Tragically, Brudenell-Bruce and his first wife provided more scandal for the British press in 1937. Lady Cardigan leapt to her death from the seventh floor of the Savoy Hotel in London. The inquest into the tragedy was widely-reported towards the end of July.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/leicester-evening-mail-27-july-1937/'><img width="800" height="663" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Leicester-Evening-Mail-27-July-1937.png?fit=800%2C663&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Leicester-Evening-Mail-27-July-1937.png?w=1270&ssl=1 1270w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Leicester-Evening-Mail-27-July-1937.png?resize=500%2C414&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Leicester-Evening-Mail-27-July-1937.png?resize=800%2C663&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Leicester-Evening-Mail-27-July-1937.png?resize=768%2C636&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/birmingham-gazette-26-july-1937/'><img width="800" height="354" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Gazette-26-July-1937.png?fit=800%2C354&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Gazette-26-July-1937.png?w=914&ssl=1 914w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Gazette-26-July-1937.png?resize=500%2C221&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Gazette-26-July-1937.png?resize=800%2C354&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Birmingham-Gazette-26-July-1937.png?resize=768%2C339&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/daily-mirror-28-july-1937/'><img width="608" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?fit=608%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?w=1946&ssl=1 1946w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?resize=380%2C500&ssl=1 380w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?resize=608%2C800&ssl=1 608w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1010&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?resize=1167%2C1536&ssl=1 1167w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Daily-Mirror-28-July-1937-scaled.jpg?resize=1557%2C2048&ssl=1 1557w" sizes="(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px" /></a>
Lady Cardigan had decided not to attend a “royal garden party” with her husband and disappeared. The coroner, Justice Ingleby Oddie, described her as “quite demented” during the three-days she spent “wrecking” her hotel room in London. He returned a verdict of “suicide while of unsound mind”.
The Daily Mirror was just one of the many newspapers that reported the tragically sad story in disturbing detail:
Police-Constable Jackson said he was called to Savoy-way at 8.30 p.m. and saw a woman lying partly on the footway, partly on the roadway, apparently dead. She wore a brown slip a pair of green shoes and a wrap. 
Her hand was touching a photograph of a boy about four years old. 
Dr Thomas Moreton, a house surgeon of Charing Cross Hospital, gave details of the post-mortem examination. 
In the stomach he found a piece of glass about half an inch square. There were extensive injuries to the body. The scalp was cut in two places. The skull had numerous fractures. 
Lady Cardigan died as a result of these injuries.
One wonders what was included in the letter Cardigan “very properly” provided the coroner from his late wife? Selective quotes were provided, including that she told her husband he “had nothing to blame” himself for and an understandable wish that her two children were “shielded” from the news. The coroner (and the newspaper articles) relayed that Lady Cardigan’s mother also committed suicide and that she was from a “bad family”.
<h2>World War II</h2>
Cardigan continued to publish car reviews in the late 1930s until his “happy, peacetime adventures” were brought to an end when war was declared (Setting My Watch By The Sundial). Brudenell-Bruce was already a subaltern in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, which one of his “ancestors” had founded but calvary being worse than useless, quickly organised a transfer to the Berkshire Territorials. His “mechanical knowledge would be of immediate use” looking after 112 vehicles in the “Workshop Platoon” (ibid).
During the “Phoney War” he was based in Northern France. When Dunkirk fell, he became a prisoner of war but escaped back to England via Spain. This was widely-reported in the press and I Walked Alone, recounting these experiences, was published in 1950.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-sketch-11-december-1940/'><img width="600" height="370" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-December-1940.png?fit=600%2C370&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-December-1940.png?w=600&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-December-1940.png?resize=500%2C308&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-sketch-11-dec-1940/'><img width="544" height="156" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-Dec-1940.png?fit=544%2C156&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-Dec-1940.png?w=544&ssl=1 544w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-Dec-1940.png?resize=500%2C143&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px" /></a>
By 1945 he was promoted to Major and returned to Europe to serve in the Allied Military Government in Germany. He was based at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displaced_persons_camps_in_post%E2%80%93World_War_II_Europe">Displaced Persons Camps</a> in Bocholt and then Hamminkeln. During this period Orwell was a <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/07/13/orwell-paris-war-correspondent/">war correspondent</a> and wrote several newspaper articles on the successes and challenges for the officers working in the Military Government.
<h2>More to consider</h2>
There are many connections worthy of further exploration that link Orwell and Cardigan’s social networks, some quite invisible.
Brudenell-Bruce’s second wife was Joyce Frances Warwick-Evans Quennell (1917-2000) who he married in 1944. She was born too late to be one of the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_young_things">Bright Young Things</a>” but had previously been married to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Quennell">Peter Quennell </a>and knew how to party.
In a strange quirk of fate, Joyce attended St Felix’s, a boarding school in Southwold, where she was taught by Brenda Salkeld, Orwell’s friend, sort-of-girlfriend and correspondent for nearly twenty years (Taylor).
Cyril Connolly, Orwell’s school-friend and editor at Horizon, reported that Peter Quennell had been “v. enthusiastic” about Homage to Catalonia (1938)
Called “Glur” by Quennell (her stepfather’s surname) he also coined “The Lost Girls” to describe the ‘adventurous young women who flitted around London, alighting briefly here and there, and making the best of any random perch on which they happened to descend’ (Taylor). This designation included Orwell’s second wife, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Orwell">Sonia Brownell</a> (1918-1980) who was a member of this social set which intersected with many people Orwell knew. He originally met her via Connolly at the Horizon office.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/sir-peter-courtney-quennell-cecil-beaton/'><img width="356" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?fit=356%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?w=1142&ssl=1 1142w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?resize=356%2C500&ssl=1 356w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?resize=570%2C800&ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?resize=768%2C1079&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sir-Peter-Courtney-Quennell-Cecil-Beaton.png?resize=1094%2C1536&ssl=1 1094w" sizes="(max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/joyce-warwick-evans/'><img width="500" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?w=1185&ssl=1 1185w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?resize=800%2C800&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Joyce-Warwick-Evans.jpeg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>
Lord and Lady Cardigan divorced in 1948. Glur’s “indiscretions with the American soldiers billeted in a wing of the house caught the eye of her husband’s servants. When the divorce petition came to court, the Earl’s butler was called to give evidence” (ibid).
<h3>The 7th Marquess of Ailesbury</h3>
The family seat, <a title="Tottenham House" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tottenham_House">Tottenham House</a> in <a title="Savernake Forest" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savernake_Forest">Savernake Forest</a>, Wiltshire, was vacated just after the war and became a school. Savernake Forest was established as a royal forest sometime after the Norman Conquest and reached its greatest extent around 1200 when it extended to some two hundred and sixty square kilometres of land (Lennon). This ancestral home was often featured in the social pages of popular magazines.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-sketch-11-april-1923/'><img width="565" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?fit=565%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?w=1809&ssl=1 1809w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?resize=353%2C500&ssl=1 353w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1 565w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1087&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?resize=1086%2C1536&ssl=1 1086w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-11-April-1923-scaled.jpg?resize=1447%2C2048&ssl=1 1447w" sizes="(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/08/20/orwell-the-earl-of-cardigan/the-sketch-3-april-1929/'><img width="565" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?fit=565%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?w=1809&ssl=1 1809w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?resize=353%2C500&ssl=1 353w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?resize=565%2C800&ssl=1 565w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1087&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?resize=1086%2C1536&ssl=1 1086w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Sketch-3-April-1929-scaled.jpg?resize=1447%2C2048&ssl=1 1447w" sizes="(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px" /></a>
In 1961, Brudenell-Bruce became the Marquess of Ailesbury. His titles included: Baron Bruce of Tottenham; Baron Brudenell of Stonton; Earl Bruce of Whorlton; Lord Ailesbury; Earl of Ailesbury; and, Viscount Savernake. He wrote two books under the name Ailesbury: The History of Savernake Forest (1962); and a memoir which studiously avoided controversial aspects of his life, Setting My Watch by the Sundial (1970).
In the final chapters of his memoir, Lord Ailesbury ruminates against the creeping socialism which has made it impossible for those with inherited wealth to maintain their lifestyles. He discusses his voting record, membership of the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Club">Association of Conservative and Unionist Peers</a>” (which supported apartheid South Africa and fiercely opposed non-white immigration to Britain). He admired the hardline imperialist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil,_5th_Marquess_of_Salisbury">Lord Salisbury</a> (for his support of white rule in Rhodesia and other colonies).
Brudenell-Bruce, who described himself as “a backwoodsman”, only <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1966/nov/03/immigration-problems#column_735">made one speech</a> in the House of Lords between 1961-1974. Possibly this was because he departed England to avoid taxes and died at St Helier’s, Guernsey. The speech, on immigration, although dressed-up in the rhetoric of serving the interests of “the ordinary British citizen” reveals his politics to be the polar opposite of Orwell’s:
“To my mind that duty comes first; and if one is able to accept that, then I would say that where duty is plain, surely a non-problem results. I should like to suggest that this matter of immigration is a statistical non-problem. So it seems to me that what is needed to deal with this matter is something in the nature of a Civil Service working party (more effective, perhaps, than any that now exist) which I should like to see headed by a non-politician, by a man of eminence, if possible a man of eminence in the business world, who is known for his ability to sort out problems and produce the right answers.” (3 November, 1966)
Brudenell-Bruce always followed his father’s advice to “vote against the Bishops” in the House of Lords. He proudly recounted how he did just this in favour of capital punishment and also demonstrated a refusal to be “beastly” towards the Rhodesians.
Jacintha Buddicom had noted that his “intellect” was not as advanced as his other drives.
<h3>In Conclusion</h3>
In 2006 Dione Venables, Buddicom’s cousin and literary executor, re-issued Eric & Us with a postscript revealing the affair with the un-named “peer of the Realm” and that Orwell had attempted to sexually assault Jacintha in September 1921. Chandos Sydney Cedric Brudenell-Bruce has now been identified and some surprising connections to Orwell revealed.
Orwell and Cardigan both wished to marry Jacintha Buddicom. She rejected their proposals and never married! 
It is <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/12/04/cini-the-beast/">a complex story </a>which in many ways is still unfolding as the secrets, gaps and silences are examined more thoroughly and further consideration given to the period from 1921-1930 in Orwell’s life.
More anon.
<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
My appreciation for Dione Venables’ endless patience, responding to emails and answering questions, cannot be understated. It was to Dione I turned when needing help with The Compleat Workes of Cini Willoughby Dering. I am also extremely grateful to Melanie Scott for contacting me to discuss what she knew about her grandmother and to Jennifer Brown, Jacintha’s niece, whose to responses to my questions were an invaluable piece of the jigsaw.
Archivists who are willing to genuinely assist with research challenges make a huge difference, especially when those documents have not been digitised. Warm thanks are due to Emily Jennings, Georgina Robinson and Stephie Coane.
FEATURED IMAGES: courtesy of <a href="https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/5apqbq/alma9931463537504761">Orwell Archive</a> and <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/use-this-image/?mkey=mw66090">National Portrait Gallery</a>
<h3>REFERENCES</h3>
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 28 May 1928
Ailesbury, George, Marquess of, Letter to Christ Church College, 16 May, 1924
Ailesbury, George, Marquess of, Letter to Christ Church College, 1 May, 1925
Ailesbury, Cedric, Marquess of, Setting My Watch By The Sundial, Wiltshire: Charles H. Woodward, 1970
Belfast News-Letter, 29 April, 1925
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 30 April, 1925
Birmingham Gazette, 26 July, 1937
Britannia and Eve, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 1938
Buddicom, Jacintha, The Compleat Workes of Cini Willoughby Dering, New York: Payson & Clarke, 1929 (published anonymously)
Buddicom, Jacintha, Eric & Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell, Frewin, 1974
Buddicom, Jacintha & Venables, Dione, Eric & Us: The Postscript Edition, Finlay, 2006
Cardigan, The Earl of, Telegram, 29 April, 1925
Cardigan, The Earl of, Youth Goes East, London: Eveleigh Nash and Grayson, 1928
Cardigan, The Earl of, Amateur Pilot, London: Putnam, 1933
Cardigan, The Earl of, The Wardens of Savernake Forest, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949
Cardigan, The Earl of, The Life and Loyalties of Thomas Bruce, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1950
Cardigan, The Earl of, I Walked Alone, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951
Courier and Advertiser, 24 April, 1928
Daily Mirror, 24 April 1928
Daily Mirror, 28 July, 1937
Eton College Chronicle, Alphabetical School List for the Summer School-Time 1917, Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co Ltd.. Available from: https://archives.etoncollege.com/PDFViewer/web/viewer.html?file=%2fFilename.ashx%3ftableName%3dta_chronicles%26columnName%3dfilename%26recordId%3d742%23page%3d20
The Illustrated London News, 19 July, 1930
Leicester Evening Mail, 27 July, 1937
Lennon, Ben. “A Study of the Trees of Savernake Forest and Tottenham Park, Wiltshire, Using Statistical Analysis of Stem Diameter”, Garden History, 2014
Old Etonian Association, Eton College Register Part VIII 1909 – 1919, W. H. Smith & Son, Ltd., Arden Press, Stamford Street, S.E.I. 1932. Available from: https://archives.etoncollege.com/PDFViewer/web/viewer.html?file=%2fFilename.ashx%3ftableName%3dta_registers%26columnName%3dfilename%26recordId%3d12
Orwell, George, The Road to Wigan Pier, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 5, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Sketch, 15 July, 1925
Sketch, 2 May, 1928
Sketch, 29 May, 1929
Sketch, 11 December, 1940
Sphere, 26 July, 1930
Tatler, 1 March, 1939
Times, 30 November, 1974
Taylor, DJ, Lost Girls: Love, War and Literature: 1939-51, London: Constable, 2019
Western Morning News and Mercury, 29 April, 1925
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Aug 2023 09:14:24 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell in Cornwall]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXW6jS9iin8OnJu9CxXrVx4c</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/6p99GfPSP8UZyaRORR1Bwsb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell in Cornwall" title="Orwell in Cornwall"> <h3>While holidaying in Cornwall with his family during the summer of 1927, Eric Blair announced his intention to quit a well-paid job with the Indian Imperial Police to become a writer. Six years later he published his first book as George Orwell.</h3>
This was not the first time the Blair family had holidayed in Cornwall but scant attention has been given to these summer months, except for the story of his resignation and a “first adventure as an amateur tramp” recounted in a letter with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polperro">Polperro</a> address. On closer examination, there is evidence that Orwell may have learnt a great deal about the natural world, science, art, literature and politics during these long summer holidays.
One biography does offer a tantalising glimpse of carefree summers, as recalled by Orwell’s youngest sister, Avril Dunn (1908-1978):
“Before 1914 and the Great War, the summer holidays were spent in Cornwall, either at Looe or at Polperro. An old Mrs Perrycoste of Polperro had been brought up by Richard Blair’s mother, Eric’s grandmother, who survived her husband by many years… Mrs Perrycoste’s children, Honor and Bernard, played with Marjorie, Avril and Eric. ‘We used to have a lovely time down there, bathing,’ Avril reminisced in a BBC programme in 1960, ‘we had some friends down there with children who were almost cousins really, and we used to go rock-climbing and all the sort of usual pursuits and he always seemed perfectly happy.’ She remembered Eric, the Perrycoste children and herself going down a lane at Polperro where a headless ghost was said to lurk; and as a precaution they carried sprigs of rowan and a leaf from the Prayer Book. Eric was always interested in ghost stories.”
 Bernard Crick, George Orwell: A Life 
Who was Mrs Perrycoste? She was only “old” in the sense that to Avril, who was was a little girl at the time, adults all probably seemed that way. <a href="https://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/maud-mary-hastings-perrycoste">Maud Perrycoste</a> (1864-1938) was a little over 40, active, creative, educated and intelligent. An artist and botanist, she had resided in Polperro with her husband since 1898.
Born Mary Maud Hastings, she was the illegitimate daughter of Colonel Samuel Hugh James Davies (1820-1869) and a clergyman’s servant, Mary Ann Hastings (1842-c.1888). Davies was Superintending Engineer on the Bengal Staff Corps when he died of fever in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shillong">Shillong, India</a>. From a large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian_people">Anglo-Indian</a> military family, he had never met his daughter but was wealthy, clearly worried about her wellbeing and made provision for ongoing care and significant financial support. Unusually, his will names the man her mother had subsequently married stating his daughter is not to be raised in the household of this ‘reprobate’ and ‘fugitive’ from the law.
The story of how Maud was raised after the death of her father illustrates a complex web of Anglo-Indian family connections and class consciousness. On Davies’ death in 1869, five-year-old Maud is living with his sister, Caroline. By 1871 she is residing near Bath in the household of Orwell’s paternal grandmother, Frances “Fanny” Blair (1823-1908). Maud must have ended-up here as Fanny’s younger sister, Laura Elizabeth Hare (1835-1919) was married to Samuel’s brother, General James Snow Davies (1823–1903).
Orwell’s father, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">Richard W. Blair</a> (1857-1939), was Fanny’s tenth child and one imagines the wealthy Davies family provided much-needed funds to the recently widowed woman ensuring Maud was raised in a genteel home as her father had willed. In 1875, the teenage Richard Blair commenced his Indian Civil Service career in the Opium Department. He remained in this department until 1911.
By 1881, Maud is being educated at a boarding school in Clapham. A decade later she is studying painting in London. By 1896, Maud is exhibiting her work at Birmingham Art Gallery.
Around about this time Maud attended botany classes at Chelsea Polytechnic. The lecturer was <a href="http://www.pelhamwest.plus.com/west5-frank-perrycoste.htm">Frank Hill Coste</a> (1865-1929) who shortly afterwards changed his name to Perri-Coste (written variously as Perry Coste or Perrycoste) to reflect his mother’s maiden name. They married in 1898 and moved to Cornwall where Maud owned a fisherman’s cottage in Polperro.
<figure id="attachment_24046" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24046" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-24046" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste.jpg?resize=500%2C352&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="352" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C352&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C563&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C541&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1081&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1442&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Maud-Perrycoste-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24046" class="wp-caption-text">Frank and Maud Perrycoste c. 1900 (courtesy of Jeremy Rowett Johns)</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Polperro</h3>
“… there were few artists who were not bewitched by its twin harbours, its three old stone piers, one of which had properties built on it, its quaint, haphazard housing, the bubbling River Pol, which ran through the village under intriguingly named old stone bridges, and the jagged crags of Peak Rock at the mouth of the harbour.” <a href="https://www.stivesart.info/biography/#:~:text=David%20Tovey%20was%20born%20in,at%20The%20University%20Of%20Warwick.">David Tovey</a>
<figure id="attachment_23855" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23855" style="width: 475px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23855" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Landaviddy-lane-Polperro.jpg?resize=475%2C708&ssl=1" alt="" width="475" height="708" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Landaviddy-lane-Polperro.jpg?resize=537%2C800&ssl=1 537w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Landaviddy-lane-Polperro.jpg?resize=335%2C500&ssl=1 335w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Landaviddy-lane-Polperro.jpg?resize=768%2C1145&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Landaviddy-lane-Polperro.jpg?w=805&ssl=1 805w" sizes="(max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23855" class="wp-caption-text">Maud Perrycoste, “Landaviddy Lane, Polperro” (courtesy of David Tovey)</figcaption></figure>
Polperro, an enchanting Cornish seaside village with the requisite history of smuggling, was quite isolated and a popular destination for artists. Maud painted and passionately pursued botanical research. She maintained a significant private herbarium and was a longterm member of The Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles (here is <a href="https://herbariaunited.org/specimen/370253/?image">a specimen she collected</a> now stored at Kew Gardens). Maud continued to exhibit her paintings at a number of galleries.
<figure id="attachment_23856" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23856" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23856 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Polperro.jpg?resize=800%2C531&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="531" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Polperro.jpg?resize=800%2C531&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Polperro.jpg?resize=500%2C332&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Polperro.jpg?resize=768%2C509&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Perrycoste-M-Polperro.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23856" class="wp-caption-text">Maud Perrycoste, “A Corner of the Harbour”, Polperro, 1901 (Courtesy of David Tovey)</figcaption></figure>
Frank was “a gentleman” without any considerable means and Maud was wealthy. The couple built a spacious new home, “Higher Shute”, in a prime position on Talland Hill overlooking the harbour and village. One local recollected that it was always “the gentry” back in those days who lived on “the hill” but felt (a little ungenerously perhaps) they had “built a very ugly house”. Contemporary advertising describes the place as an “unusually spacious arts and crafts-style house” with “wood beams, open fireplaces” and “oozing character”.
The Blairs must have enjoyed memorable summers at this residence (which is listed as vacant on the 1921 census suggesting it was available for friends and family). They also stayed at a guest house named “Grove Terrace” and possibly Maud’s other local residence, “Warren Cottage”.
<figure style="width: 459px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Talland-Hill-1930.png?resize=459%2C653&ssl=1" alt="" width="459" height="653" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Talland Hill, 1930 (courtesy of Jeremy Rowett Johns)</figcaption></figure>
Maud appears to have ceased painting (or at least exhibiting) when her children were born. Fanny Blair died in 1908 but her son’s children developed a fun relationship with her ward’s family in the coming years. These “cousins” Avril mentioned playing with in Polperro before the war were Wykeham Bernard Cuthbert Perrycoste (1902-72) and Honor Maud Mary Perrycoste (1903-1987).
The same contemporary, who did not like the new house much, reminisced in her old age about Maud and Frank. She thought her a “good artist and botanist, but inclined to be affected, and at times hysterical”. She was “very kind” and others “liked her” even if “they laughed at her”. She noted an aunt was genuinely “shocked” by Maud’s “modern ideas on religion, especially on Sunday observances…”. Frank, although he had “a reputation for cleverness” she “never heard of anything he did or said that confirmed this”.
One newspaper report offers a tantalising glimpse of Maud’s personality and one can imagine how much a young Orwell would have relished traipsing all over the district looking for botanical specimens with this unconventional woman, Avril and her children.
<figure id="attachment_23974" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23974" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23974 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/14-September-1916.png?resize=480%2C582&ssl=1" alt="" width="480" height="582" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/14-September-1916.png?w=480&ssl=1 480w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/14-September-1916.png?resize=412%2C500&ssl=1 412w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23974" class="wp-caption-text">West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 14 Sept. 1916</figcaption></figure>
<h3>The “Polperro Fingerprint Man” 
</h3>
“Mr Perry Coste had taken the finger-prints of nearly the whole population of Polperro.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton">Francis Galton</a>
Frank Perrycoste (1865-1929) was a polymath. He won a scholarship to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_School,_London">St. Paul’s School</a> and subsequently completed a Bachelor of Science (with honours in chemistry and biology) which led to employment as an analytical chemist in London. He soon abandoned this job for a literary career, often writing about scientific topics. He <a href="https://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?srt=date2&srtChange=true&http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vl(297891299UI2)=any&vl(297891310UI4)=&&indx=1&fn=search&dscnt=0&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&vl(1UIStartWith2)=contains&mode=Advanced&vid=BLVU1&vl(297891311UI4)=00&tab=local_tab&vl(freeText1)=&dstmp=1690243480110&vl(297891292UI0)=AND&frbg=&vl(297891294UI1)=AND&vl(297891309UI4)=00&vl(297891307UI3)=all_items&vl(297891312UI4)=00&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&tb=t&vl(1UIStartWith1)=contains&ct=search&vl(297891298UI2)=AND&vl(297891293UI0)=any&srt=rank&vl(297891308UI4)=00&vl(297891313UI4)=&Submit=Search&vl(297891295UI1)=any&vl(freeText2)=&dum=true&vl(freeText0)=Frank%20Perrycoste">published prolifically</a> during the 1890s and until his death in 1929.
<figure id="attachment_24009" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24009" style="width: 340px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-24009" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-340x500.jpg?resize=340%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="340" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?resize=340%2C500&ssl=1 340w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?resize=543%2C800&ssl=1 543w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1131&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?resize=1043%2C1536&ssl=1 1043w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?resize=1391%2C2048&ssl=1 1391w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Frank-Perrycoste-1924-by-Ertz-scaled.jpg?w=1738&ssl=1 1738w" sizes="(max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24009" class="wp-caption-text">Frank Perrycoste in 1924 (courtesy of Jeremy Rowett Johns)</figcaption></figure>
Frank is mostly remembered as the “Polperro Fingerprint Man”. In 1903 he wrote to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton">Francis Galton</a> – a polymath and eugenicist deeply influenced by his cousin, Charles Darwin – volunteering to conduct research into inherited characteristics by fingerprinting the entire population of the village. Galton agreed and their correspondence, discussing fingerprinting Frank’s son, poor handwriting and the resulting need for a typewriter is mildly amusing.
Perrycoste would spend most of the next 25 years combing parish records, graveyards and conducting oral research which continues to be an invaluable local genealogical and scientific resource. “Pedigrees of Polperro” was published by the Cornish Times in 1925 (and other similiar studies followed). A posthumously published book, Gleanings from the Records of Zephaniah Job of Polperro (1930), is a comprehensive look at smuggling during the Napoleonic Wars.
<figure id="attachment_24136" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24136" style="width: 470px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-24136" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Galton.jpeg?resize=470%2C480&ssl=1" alt="" width="470" height="480" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24136" class="wp-caption-text">Francis Galton by Charles Wellington Furse (1903)</figcaption></figure>
<h3>A Love & Knowledge of Nature </h3>
“Flowers now in bloom in the garden: polyanthus, aubretia, scilla, grape hyacinth, oxalis, a few narcissi. Many daffodils in the field. These are very° double & evidently not real wild daffodil but bulbs dropped there by accident. Bullaces & plums coming into blossom. Apple trees budding but no blossom yet. Pears in full blossom. Roses sprouting fairly strongly. I note that one of the standards which died is sprouting from the root, so evidently the stock can live when the scion is dead. Peonies sprouting strongly. Crocuses are just over. A few tulips in bud. A few leeks & parsnips in the garden (the latter have survived the winter without covering up & tops are still green), otherwise no vegetables. It appears that owing to severe frosts there are no winter greens locally.
Bats out everywhere. Have not found any birds’ nests yet. 
Wildflowers out: violets, primroses, celandine, anemones. A little rhubarb showing. Blackcurrant bushes etc. for the most part have grown very weedy, probably for lack of hoeing round etc. Strawberries have all run & are covered with weeds but look fairly strong. 
Sowed cos lettuce. 
Leaf mould (beech) put down at end of 1937 is now well rotted down. Found two thrushe’s° eggs under the hedge—no nest, somewhat mysterious, but perhaps left there by a child.” 
 Orwell, Domestic Diary 12.4.39
Orwell’s enduring love of rambling in the countryside and his surprisingly detailed knowledge of the natural world is scattered through his letters, diaries and published work. It was noted by his friends, lovers and students. Geoffrey Stevens, one of the children he taught in the early 1930s, described Orwell as “a great nature lover” who took delight in showing the class “Puss Moth caterpillars eggs on the Black Poplar” and how to “collect marsh gas from some stagnant pond” outside of school hours.
Where did Orwell gain such detailed knowledge of the natural world?
In his youth he rambled extensively around Ticklerton in Shropshire with his friends, accompanied by knowledgeable adults like Lilian Buddicom. Although never discussed previously, it seems probable that his summers in Cornwall were significant. The Perrycoste family were not only well-educated and scientifically literate but committed to practical, sophisticated research.
In 1920, Frank and his teenage daughter, Honor, co-authored a paper, “Cornish Phenology, 1912-19”, which was published in Science Progress in the Twentieth Century. Based on data collected over a period of eight consecutive years (in association with the Wild Flower Society) they “emphasise the importance of systematised phenological records as indices to what one may perhaps call resultant climate, or to point out that the net effect of temperature, rainfall, latitude, elevation, exposure, etc., is summed up in, e.g., the dates of flowering of plants without any ambiguity or possibility of error”.
A text search through the <a href="https://ia802607.us.archive.org/8/items/supplementtofham00thurrich/supplementtofham00thurrich.pdf">1922 supplement </a>to Flora of Cornwall (1909) reveals just how active Maud and Frank were in identifying local species and correcting errors. The name “Perrycoste” appears 183 times in the 200 page supplement.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/supplement-2/'><img width="375" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?fit=375%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/supplement.png?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2-45-38-pm/'><img width="403" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2.45.38-pm.png?fit=403%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2.45.38-pm.png?w=880&ssl=1 880w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2.45.38-pm.png?resize=403%2C500&ssl=1 403w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2.45.38-pm.png?resize=645%2C800&ssl=1 645w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-2.45.38-pm.png?resize=768%2C953&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px" /></a>
What impact did the Perrycoste family have on Orwell?
Frank and Maud Perrycoste were extraordinary people by any standard. Their combined talents extended into many fields: literary, artistic, scientific, genealogical, legal and botanical. They were politically engaged in progressive, liberal ideas.
Frank was intellectually engaged with his world, wrote on an incredibly diverse range of topics and one can easily imagine Orwell, who always took “great pleasure in … scraps of useless information” enjoying esoteric essays about <a href="https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1038_045513c0">insect colours</a>, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1038_045176b0">salts in natural waters</a> or <a href="https://archive.org/details/b22333745">colour-blindness</a>. Orwell’s eclectic “As I Please” column has many examples of random ruminations about nature. <a style="background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/some-thoughts-on-the-common-toad/">Some Thoughts on the Common Toad</a> is a fitting example:
“I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and – to return to my first instance – toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable…” 
 Tribune, 12 April 1946
<h3>Further Reflections</h3>
Orwell and his family visited Polperro during August and probably into September 1920. One imagines that Orwell, his father and Frank must have discussed a range of issues. This letter to the editor of Science Progress from Perrycoste in October 1920 about <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/43768961">“Starvation Pay of Brain-Workers”</a> is an interesting one:
Dear Sir, – I believe that I am correct in stating that a raw youth of about eighteen, if possessing a good physique and a fair character, and if normally “intelligent,” is started, even whilst under training, in the police force at pay of £182 per year; and he may rise to the rank of superintendent at a minimum annual pay of £450 : and every rank in the police force carries a substantial pension. Incidentally, I have seen it stated that the average annual pay of university professors is about £400; and the provision for pensioning them is, I believe, negligible.
It was recently decided that dockers – who, I suppose, are at the lowest level of unskilled physical labour – ought to receive £250 per year ; and a scheme is under consideration for guaranteeing them, whilst unemployed, pay at the rate of £200 per year at the expense of the industry. 
Let it be remembered that those who become policemen and dockers have been earning wages – in these days possibly or probably more than their cost of living – since they were fourteen. 
Now we will turn to the other side of the picture. In a recent issue of Nature the University of London advertises for two demonstrators in chemistry at a salary each of £200 – equivalent in purchasing power to about £76 in 1913. I presume that such demonstrators will be graduates – i.e. that, instead of having earned their living during seven or eight years previously, they have been kept at school and university at very heavy expense to their parents. 
I brush aside at once the myth that only rich men send their sons to the universities. In numberless cases the lads are sent there at the cost of grievous self-denial to the parents, and not even as a good pecuniary investment for the lads themselves.” Orwell in Tribune, 3 January, 1947
Did they discuss any of these issues that summer? Mr and Mrs Blair were certainly considering what their son was going to do post-Eton. Jacintha Buddicom recalled conversations about Oxford University suggesting Mr Blair was against it but Mrs Blair disagreed.
Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in 1922 rather than attend university. Frank was long dead but is interesting that Orwell noted twenty years later the experience of seeing one of the quartermasters on the voyage to Burma:
<div title=""></div>
“… scurrying like a rat along the side of the deck-houses, with something partially concealed between his monstrous hands. I had just time to see what it was before he shot past me and vanished into a doorway. It was a pie dish containing a half-eaten baked custard pudding. 
At one glance I took in the situation—indeed, the man’s air of guilt made it unmistakable. The pudding was a left-over from one of the passengers’ tables. It had been illicitly given to him by a steward, and he was carrying it off to the seamen’s quarters to devour it at leisure. 
Across more than twenty years I can still faintly feel the shock of astonishment that I felt at that moment. It took me some time to see the incident in all its bearings: but do I seem to exaggerate when I say that this sudden revelation of the gap between function and reward—the revelation that a highly-skilled craftsman, who might literally hold all our lives in his hands, was glad to steal scraps of food from our table—taught me more than I could have learned from half a dozen Socialist pamphlets?”
Frank would have appreciated the anecdote.
Perrycoste, descended from Huguenot refugees who were also persecuted in Britain, was eulogised as the “fisherman’s champion”. He was always a progressive thinker and by the end of his life a Labour supporter.
<figure id="attachment_23986" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23986" style="width: 318px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23986 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-24-at-5.30.02-pm-1.png?resize=318%2C1702&ssl=1" alt="" width="318" height="1702" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-24-at-5.30.02-pm-1.png?w=318&ssl=1 318w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-24-at-5.30.02-pm-1.png?resize=287%2C1536&ssl=1 287w" sizes="(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23986" class="wp-caption-text">Cornish Guardian, 24 October 1929</figcaption></figure>
<h3>A Conclusion (of Sorts)</h3>
“…there is one phrase in it that is as individual as a fingerprint.” Orwell 11 March, 1940
It may seem fanciful to suggest that the Perrycoste family was an important formative influence on the young George Orwell. Why are they not mentioned in any of his letters or diaries? Orwell virtually never wrote about his family and there are so few letters to or from his relatives that one senses they were destroyed on purpose – or possibly the itinerant lives of Anglo-Indian families makes for a better explanation.
Significant supporters of his professional life as a writer, such as his Aunt Nellie and his first wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy, are barely discernible in his letters or diaries.
Prior to resigning from his job with the Indian Imperial Police, it seems that Frank Perrycoste, along with the poet Ruth Pitter, were two of the only writers he could have possibly spent any significant amount time besides schoolteachers. Even a cursory read through Perrycoste’s bibliography suggests that his themes and preoccupations were not unknown to Orwell.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12-24-16-pm/'><img width="479" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.24.16-pm.png?fit=479%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.24.16-pm.png?w=842&ssl=1 842w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.24.16-pm.png?resize=299%2C500&ssl=1 299w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.24.16-pm.png?resize=479%2C800&ssl=1 479w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.24.16-pm.png?resize=768%2C1282&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/07/29/orwell-in-cornwall/screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12-25-10-pm/'><img width="480" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.25.10-pm.png?fit=480%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.25.10-pm.png?w=842&ssl=1 842w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.25.10-pm.png?resize=300%2C500&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.25.10-pm.png?resize=480%2C800&ssl=1 480w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-12.25.10-pm.png?resize=768%2C1279&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></a>
At the very least, now that the Perrycoste family’s presence in Orwell’s life has been remembered, it is worthy of further research and consideration.
<h3>Postscript</h3>
This piece is very much a rough draft for feedback and discussion.
<a href="https://orwellsociety.com/">The Orwell Society </a>hosts expeditions to many sites of interests for those interested in the writer’s life. Jura, Spain, Morocco, Paris & London are some of the highlights and one imagines that some members may well enjoy a trip to Polperro to continue the conversation with local researchers, historians and genealogists.
<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
Thank you to Stephen Buckley who provided the impetus for this research into Orwell’s Cornish holidays. <a href="https://www.stivesart.info/biography/#:~:text=David%20Tovey%20was%20born%20in,at%20The%20University%20Of%20Warwick.">David Tovey</a>‘s intellectual generosity has been greatly appreciated as has research conducted by <a href="https://www.brickwallgenealogy.com/">Kathryn Le Gay Brereton</a>. The support of Jeremy Rowett Johns and the <a href="https://www.polperrofhs.org/">Polperro Family History Society</a> has been absolutely invaluable. Carolyn Boon, has been very generous with her knowledge. Sincere thanks!
<h3>Featured image</h3>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Bostock">Cecil Bostock</a>, “An Old World Harbour, Polperro”, 1920 (Courtesy of the Art Gallery of NSW)
<h3>References</h3>
Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Cornish Guardian, 24 October 1929
Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life, London: Penguin. 1992
Davies, Colonel Samuel Hugh James, British India Office Wills & Probate, Wills – Bengal 1780-1938
Hewson, Eileen, Assam and North-East India: Christian Cemeteries and Memorials, BACSA, 2005
Jerram, Muriel, Recollections of a Talland childhood in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, The estate of Muriel Jerram, ND (Courtesy of David Tovey)
Johns, Jeremy Rowett, <a href="https://www.polperropress.co.uk/uploads/lookinside/Smugglers_Banker_lookinside.pdf">The Smugglers’ Banker: The Story of Zephaniah Job of Polperro</a>, Polperro Heritage Press, 2008
Orwell, George, A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 10, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Pearson, Karl, <a href="https://galton.org/pearson/ocr/vol3b.pdf">The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton</a>, London: Cambridge University Press, 1930
Perrycoste, Frank Hill, The Cry of the Children: An Essay in Tyranny and Ignorance, Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate, 1892
Perrycoste, Frank Hill, Towards Utopia: Being Speculations in Social Evolution, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1894
Perrycoste, Frank Hill, Ritual, Faith and Morals: Being Two Chapters from an Historical Enquiry into the Influence of Religion Upon Moral Civilisation, London: Watts and Co., 1910
Perrycoste, Frank Hill, Religion and Moral Civilisation: being the prolegomena to an enquiry into the influence of religion upon moral civilisation, London: Watts & Co., 1915
Perrycoste, Frank H., and Honor M. M., “Cornish Phrenology”, 1912—1919.” Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933), vol. 15, no. 57, 1920, pp. 60–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43769320. Accessed 22 July 2023.
Perrycoste, Frank H. “Starvation Pay of Brain-Workers”, Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933), vol. 15, no. 59, 1921, pp. 478–79. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43768961. Accessed 22 July 2023
Perrycoste, Frank H. “Politics and Science”, Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933), vol. 14, no. 55, 1920, pp. 486–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43431608. Accessed 22 July 2023
Perrycoste, Frank Hill, Gleanings from the Records of Zephaniah Job of Polperro, Polperro Heritage Press, [1930] 2007
Thurston, Edgar and Vigurs, Chambré C., “<a href="https://ia802607.us.archive.org/8/items/supplementtofham00thurrich/supplementtofham00thurrich.pdf">A supplement to F. Hamilton Davey’s Flora of Cornwall”</a>, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, vol. XXI, Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1922
Tovey, David, Polperro: Cornwall’s Forgotten Art Centre: Volume One: Pre-1920, Wilson Books, 2021
Tovey, David, Polperro: Cornwall’s Forgotten Art Centre: Volume Two: Post-1920, Wilson Books, 2021
West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 14 September 1916
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<pubDate>Sat, 29 Jul 2023 13:24:16 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell & Van Gogh]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXX1u06rPxVXDN3hDS9njgCr</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/oKMNvbkDuTWG0nyQPauP5Mb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell & Van Gogh" title="Orwell & Van Gogh"> <h3 style="text-align: center;">“I want this one to be a work of art, & that can’t be done without much bloody sweat.”</h3>
 George Orwell, 1935
<h3 style="text-align: center;">“Books and reality and art are the same kind of thing for me.” </h3>
 . Vincent Van Gogh, 1883
Generations of art historians have been intellectually stimulated by <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html">Vincent Van Gogh’s remarkable correspondence</a> and one cannot exaggerate how important this treasure, accessible <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/about_1.html">online</a> with boundless footnotes about the places, ideas, books and art Vincent references, is for anyone wishing to witness the growth of an artist’s mind. It struck me, while reading these letters, that Van Gogh and George Orwell shared similar artistic inclinations, motivations and life stories.
What did the English writer and Dutch painter have in common?
I have not discovered anything written about Orwell and Van Gogh (with this question in mind). Does this make what I am about to say fanciful? Although it occurred to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/44235390">one essayist that a comparative study of D.H. Lawrence and the Dutchman </a>was worthwhile.
<figure id="attachment_23198" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23198" style="width: 396px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-23198 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045.jpg?resize=396%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="396" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?resize=396%2C500&ssl=1 396w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?resize=633%2C800&ssl=1 633w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C971&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?resize=1215%2C1536&ssl=1 1215w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?resize=1620%2C2048&ssl=1 1620w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project_454045-scaled.jpg?w=2025&ssl=1 2025w" sizes="(max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23198" class="wp-caption-text">Van Gogh, Self-portrait, 1887</figcaption></figure>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Orwell (1903-1950) & Van Gogh (1853-1890)</h2>
I often quip that Orwell is not the writer your English teacher told you about. Van Gogh too is much more complex than the romantic narrative, about the solitary genius and madman who sliced off his ear, that popular culture tends to emphasise.
The following rough notes (and feel encouraged to add your critical reflections in the comments below) compare, rather than contrast, the two men: 
– their professional careers – as writer and painter – did not commence until they were well into adulthood and were truncated by early deaths 
– they both tried to ‘play the game’ by pursuing careers, approved of by their parents, after leaving school for which they were totally unsuited 
– similar lower-upper-middle class class backgrounds featuring boarding school and parental encouragement to better themselves socially through education 
– itinerant and unfazed by physical hardship 
– profound love of nature and passion for walking 
– uncompromising, single-minded attitudes towards their art – “true artists” 
– a surprising personal commitment to the poor and oppressed 
– a profound interest in radical politics and history 
– they both had networks that promoted and supported their artistic endeavours (especially after their deaths) and were not the solitary geniuses of reputation 
– both suffered poor health accentuated by careless attitudes towards their own wellbeing 
– both were well-acquainted with prostitution 
– dressed as proletarians with little consideration of the notions of respectability that their parents valued 
– they were driven by their art, writing and painting, which was more important than other considerations 
– their artistic outputs were phenomenally high during short lives where the spectre of ill-health was never far away 
– they both worked as schoolteachers and booksellers 
– they disdained academia 
– they forged original styles that were accessible to regular people 
– at death, both men were recognised as important artists by their peers 
– they were readers who lived obsessively in the world of books and ideas
This last point is the one I am currently researching.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/17/orwell-van-gogh/4b12/'><img width="382" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?fit=382%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?w=1958&ssl=1 1958w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?resize=382%2C500&ssl=1 382w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?resize=612%2C800&ssl=1 612w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1004&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?resize=1175%2C1536&ssl=1 1175w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4B12-scaled.jpg?resize=1566%2C2048&ssl=1 1566w" sizes="(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/17/orwell-van-gogh/blusse-van-braam-c-1875-dordrecht/'><img width="500" height="370" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Blusse-Van-Braam-c-1875-Dordrecht.png?fit=500%2C370&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Blusse-Van-Braam-c-1875-Dordrecht.png?w=1200&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Blusse-Van-Braam-c-1875-Dordrecht.png?resize=500%2C370&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Blusse-Van-Braam-c-1875-Dordrecht.png?resize=800%2C593&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Blusse-Van-Braam-c-1875-Dordrecht.png?resize=768%2C569&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>
<h2>Orwell & Art</h2>
Orwell’s interest in painting is much deeper than generally recognised. Mabel Fierz, the woman who championed his first published book, Down and Out in Paris and London, met Orwell on the beach, at Southwold, while he was painting seascapes. He likely occupied himself in Paris, during the late 1920s, by not just visiting salons and galleries but also trying his hand at drawing and painting. I have argued previously that the artist, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/ruth-eleanor-graves/">Ruth Graves</a>, was a significant and <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/12/12/poverty-and-the-true-artist/">trusted early mentor</a>. She argued passionately in her dissertation, titled ‘The True Artist’, that the greatest art is produced by those who ‘struggle with poverty to paint truth’ and that, ‘the artist’s wage is not comfort, but life’.
Orwell is no art critic but his essay, ‘Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali’, although not particularly well-known – except for a <a href="https://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/dali/english/e_dali">stunning, oft-quoted opening sentence</a> – is an excellent rumination on the challenges of modern art and an artist he finds repellant.
There is no record that Orwell viewed Van Gogh’s work while living in Paris but we do know that he admired the artist. On 4 May 1945, the socialist newspaper Tribune published a letter signed by Orwell (and eight others) protesting the imprisonment for nine months of several members of the editorial board of the British political journal, War Commentary:
<blockquote>“The things these men did which brought them standing, where thieves and murderers are wont to stand, inside the dock at the Old Bailey, spring from their love of justice and their concern for the victims and the poor. On trial with them were the teachings of Jesus, the philosophy of Peter Kropotkin, the politics of Tom Paine, the poetry of William Blake and the paintings of Van Gogh. No man who accepts these can remain true to them while rejecting the right of these three men to do the things they did.”</blockquote>
In 1948, Orwell wrote hopefully (to his friend David Astor) just before he commenced a course of the experimental drug, streptomycin, to treat his tuberculosis mentioning “the Van Gogh exhibition apparently begins on the 21st”.
This exhibition <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/vincent-van-gogh-exhibition-paintings-and-drawings">opened at The Tate Gallery </a>in London during December 1947 before moving to Birmingham, then to Glasgow — near where Orwell was in hospital — from 20 February to 14 March 1948. Douglas Bliss, the director of the Glasgow School Of Art, reviewed the exhibition perceptively in The Scotsman (Saturday 21 Feb. 1948).
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/17/orwell-van-gogh/van-gogh-glasgow/'><img width="462" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?fit=462%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?w=1070&ssl=1 1070w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?resize=289%2C500&ssl=1 289w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?resize=462%2C800&ssl=1 462w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?resize=768%2C1329&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Van-Gogh-Glasgow.jpeg?resize=887%2C1536&ssl=1 887w" sizes="(max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/17/orwell-van-gogh/vincent-van-gogh-exhibition-poster-tate-gallery-1947-tate-2018/'><img width="527" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-exhibition-poster-Tate-Gallery-1947.-©-Tate-2018.png?fit=527%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-exhibition-poster-Tate-Gallery-1947.-©-Tate-2018.png?w=1002&ssl=1 1002w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-exhibition-poster-Tate-Gallery-1947.-©-Tate-2018.png?resize=329%2C500&ssl=1 329w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-exhibition-poster-Tate-Gallery-1947.-©-Tate-2018.png?resize=527%2C800&ssl=1 527w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-exhibition-poster-Tate-Gallery-1947.-©-Tate-2018.png?resize=768%2C1167&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px" /></a>
<div>
There is no evidence that Orwell was able to leave his hospital bed to attend the exhibition with his friend. Sadly, he had not responded to treatment being <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2019/06/09/orwells-streptomycin/">allergic to streptomycin</a>, the drug that would have likely saved his life.
<h2>Literature, Painting & Dickens</h2>
<blockquote>“But every writer, especially every novelist, has a ‘message’, whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda. Neither Dickens himself nor the majority of Victorian novelists would have thought of denying this. On the other hand, not all propaganda is art. As I said earlier, Dickens is one of those writers who are felt to be worth stealing. He has been stolen by Marxists, by Catholics and, above all, by Conservatives. The question is, What is there to steal? Why does anyone care about Dickens? Why do I care about Dickens?” </blockquote>
 . …George Orwell, ‘Charles Dickens’, 1940
Comparing Orwell’s and Van Gogh’s reading lives will take some time. I am well-versed in Orwell’s reading but Van Gogh references over 800 works of literature in his many letters. Both men were deeply immersed in 19th century British and French literature and valued re-reading. Orwell had “the lonely child’s habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons” and felt his “literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued”. Van Gogh identified himself with literary characters when considering his current plight or situation. Both enjoyed what Orwell called, “good bad books”.
<figure id="attachment_23192" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23192" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-23192" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/van-goghfrench-novels.webp?resize=800%2C638&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="638" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/van-goghfrench-novels.webp?resize=800%2C638&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/van-goghfrench-novels.webp?resize=500%2C399&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/van-goghfrench-novels.webp?resize=768%2C613&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/van-goghfrench-novels.webp?w=1003&ssl=1 1003w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23192" class="wp-caption-text">Van Gogh, Still Life with French Novels And A Rose (1887)</figcaption></figure>
Although Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola and William Shakespeare were perennial favourites, Van Gogh particularly loved George Eliot and Charles Dickens, re-reading them frequently throughout his life:
<blockquote>“I find all of Dickens beautiful … I’ve re-read them almost every year since I was a boy, and they always seem new to me.” Van Gogh, 1883</blockquote>
Of course, these novelists were widely read and there is nothing remarkable that both Orwell and Van Gogh loved their books. However, both men engaged with ideas about social reform espoused by these writers to fuel their own creativity and original styles. Patrick Grant says of Van Gogh:
<blockquote>“Mainly, he found confirmation among the great nineteenth-century novelists for his lifelong concerns about the plight of the poor, but he also found validation among many of his admired writers for his own favourite theories about artistic production. For instance, he thought that distinguished authors (like painters) do not simply reproduce natural appearances; rather, they often use exaggeration and simplification to achieve imaginative power.” Reading Vincent van Gogh (pp. 141-142)</blockquote>
Books often feature in Van Gogh’s paintings. He fervently believed that the creative juices a novelist or poet employed were little different to that of the painter. He described them as “sister arts”. Van Gogh’s commentary on Charles Dickens illuminates this point and is interesting in that it emphasises style:
<blockquote>I have my perspective books here and a few volumes of Dickens, including Edwin Drood. There’s perspective in Dickens too. By Jove, what an artist. There’s no one to match him.”</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_23098" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23098" style="width: 667px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23098 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-LArlesienne-1890.jpg?resize=667%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="667" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-LArlesienne-1890.jpg?resize=667%2C800&ssl=1 667w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-LArlesienne-1890.jpg?resize=417%2C500&ssl=1 417w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-LArlesienne-1890.jpg?resize=768%2C922&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vincent-van-Gogh-LArlesienne-1890.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 840w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23098" class="wp-caption-text">Vincent van Gogh, L’Arlésienne 1890 (Dickens’ Christmas Stories is in the foreground)</figcaption></figure>
Rumination on beauty and truth permeate both writers work. Orwell – “I have tried to tell the truth in these letters” – was famously honest and the rarest of writer in that he admits when he has been wrong. Van Gogh, in one of his many letters to his brother Theo, <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let249/letter.html">explained how he regarded ar</a>t:
<blockquote>“One must work long and hard to arrive at the truthful. What I want and set as my goal is damned difficult, and yet I don’t believe I’m aiming too high. I want to make drawings that move some people.”</blockquote>
<h2>Initial Reflections</h2>
Ideologically, it makes complete sense that Orwell would appreciate Van Gogh’s artistic achievement. One instructive example, <a href="https://www.vincentvangogh.org/potato-eaters.jsp">The Potato Eaters </a>(1885), is important to understanding how Van Gogh rendered a philosophic message stylistically. He explains to Theo how hard he had worked on seriously studying “peasant life” to “give people who think seriously about art and about life serious things to think about”:
<blockquote>“I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and — that they have thus honestly earned their food.”</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_23208" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23208" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-23208 size-medium" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/potato-eaters-500x355.jpg?resize=500%2C355&ssl=1" alt="" width="500" height="355" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/potato-eaters.jpg?resize=500%2C355&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/potato-eaters.jpg?resize=800%2C568&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/potato-eaters.jpg?resize=768%2C545&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/potato-eaters.jpg?w=900&ssl=1 900w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23208" class="wp-caption-text">Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters (1885)</figcaption></figure>
Orwell, would have understood Van Gogh’s comment in the same letter, that “a peasant girl is more beautiful than a lady — to my mind — in her dusty and patched blue skirt and jacket, which have acquired the most delicate nuances from weather, wind and sun”. Similarly, in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Orwell’s protagonist listens to a “prole” singing while pegging baby diapers to the clothesline:
<blockquote>“She’s beautiful,’ he murmured. 
‘She’s a metre across the hips, easily,’ said Julia. 
‘That is her style of beauty,’ said Winston.”</blockquote>
It was during his years in London, working as an art dealer, that Van Gogh was shocked at the penury he saw in city. An <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vincent-van-gogh-1182/seven-things-know-about-van-goghs-time-britain">exhibition held in London </a>(2019) explored the crucial impact of Van Gogh’s time living in Britain on his work:
<blockquote>“Having grown up in a middle-class home, Van Gogh was shocked by the poverty on the streets of London. He began questioning capitalism and vowed to live a meaningful life. When he did decide to become an artist, he wished only to create art ‘for the people’. Prisoners Exercising was based on a print of Newgate Prison in London. It shows the misery and entrapment of the prisoners, while their superiors, a prison guard and two upper-class men in top hats watch on. This image stayed with Van Gogh for many years, finally painting Prisoners Exercising in 1890. It is clear Van Gogh felt a kinship with the behaviour and social position of these prisoners.”</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_23215" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23215" style="width: 390px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-23215" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/exercising.jpeg?resize=390%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="390" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/exercising.jpeg?resize=390%2C500&ssl=1 390w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/exercising.jpeg?w=516&ssl=1 516w" sizes="(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23215" class="wp-caption-text">Van Gogh, Prisoners Exercising (1890)</figcaption></figure>
Orwell, who had dressed in his own “top hat” while at Eton, spent his life reflecting on life in London. Anyone who has read Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) will remember Winston’s Smith’s questioning of an old man in the pub:
<blockquote>“Here in London, the great mass of the people never had enough to eat from birth to death. Half of them hadn’t even boots on their feet. They worked twelve hours a day, they left school at nine, they slept ten in a room. And at the same time there were a very few people, only a few thousands – the capitalists, they were called – who were rich and powerful. They owned everything that there was to own. They lived in great gorgeous houses with thirty servants, they rode about in motor-cars and four-horse carriages, they drank champagne, they wore top hats…”.</blockquote>
One thing that is hard to reconcile, with any comparison with Orwell, is the intensity of Van Gogh’s religious belief and the impact of this on his work. Orwell was an atheist from his teens and despised the Roman Catholic Church, wrote some challenging things about buddhist priests and religion generally. Van Gogh, the failed pastor, who never lost his faith, saw Jesus Christ as an artist above all other artists. One would imagine Orwell had no beef with the teachings of Jesus Christ though.
What do you think?
.
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REFERENCES
Bakker, Nienke, The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters, London: Thames & Hudson, 2010
Barr, Alfred H, Jnr., <a href="https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf?_ga=2.123506061.76439255.1681529134-767366452.1681529134">Vincent Van Gogh (with an introduction and notes selected from the letters of the artist)</a>, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935
Bliss, “Van Gogh in Glasgow”, The Scotsman, 21 February 1948
Grant, Patrick, Reading Vincent van Gogh: A Thematic Guide to the Letters, Edmonton: AU Press, 2016
Guzzoni, Mariella, Vincent’s Books: Van Gogh and the Writers Who Inspired Him, London: Thames & Hudson, 2020
Jacobi, Carol, Van Gogh and Britain, London: Tate Publishing, 2019
Metzger, Rainer; Walther, Ingo F., Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings, Taschen, 2020
Miller, Henry, The Books in My Life, Norfolk: New Directions, 1952
Naifeh, Steven W., Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved, Random House: Kindle Edition, 2021
Naifeh, Steven W.; Smith, Gregory White, Van Gogh: The Life, Random House: Kindle Edition, 2012
Nordenfalk, Carl, “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/750400?read-now=1&seq=1#page\_scan\_tab\_contents">Van Gogh and Literature</a>”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 10 (1947): 132–47
Orwell, George, A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 10, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, I Belong to the Left: 1945, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 17, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, It Is What I Think: 1947–1948, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 19, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Orwell, George, Our Job Is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949–1950, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 20, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Seznec, Jean, “<a href="https://archive.org/details/sim\_magazine-of-art-1949\_1950-05\_43\_5">Literary Inspiration in Van Gogh</a>”, Magazine of Art 43 (1950): 282-293; 306-307
Stewart, Jack F. “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/44235390">The Vital Art of Lawrence and Van Gogh</a>”, The D.H. Lawrence Review 19, no. 2 (1987): 123–48
Taylor, D.J., Orwell – The Life, London: Vintage Books, 2004
Uitert, E. van & Hoyle, M. (ed.), The Rijksmuseum: Vincent Van Gogh, Amsterdam: Meulenhoff/Landshoff, 1987
Van Gogh Museum, <a href="https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html">Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters</a>, accessed February-April, 2023
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<pubDate>Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:57:23 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwellian Literary Curios]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXURqNGrCbk61mFk24e89-qg</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/0RuNNadQTGmG0nyQPauP5Mb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwellian Literary Curios" title="Orwellian Literary Curios"> <blockquote>
Bibliophiles love literary curios and, with such a fascinating publishing history, George Orwell is a particularly interesting and collectible author.
</blockquote>
Often Orwell published in obscure leftwing periodicals, with small print circulations, even after the fame Animal Farm (1945) bought him. Contextually, it is often quite illuminating to see the publications where his writing appeared. Often, there are all kinds of clues and information that assist in understanding his literary and political worlds.
Orwell was read widely in translation, from as early as 1935 in France and Czechoslovakia, and became very popular in countries with oppressive systems of government, even though his work was banned. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat">Samizdat</a> copies of his most famous novels circulated clandestinely in Eastern Europe during the Cold War period, until the fall of Communism in 1990. These illegally produced editions, with rusting staples and fading, poor quality paper are hard to find and sell for exorbitant prices.
Two dozen examples of these curios, from <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/">my own collection</a>, illustrate his publishing history. I have also included some articles about Orwell, published in surprising and unlikely places. Please feel encouraged to comment below or email, especially if you can answer my questions.
<h2>John Galsworthy (1929)</h2>
Monde, Number 42, 23rd March, 1929
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0264/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0264-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0266/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0266-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Ironically, Orwell, the great English writer, was first published in French. During the eighteen months <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/orwell-in-paris/">he resided in Paris</a>, Orwell was appeared twice in Monde, Henri Barbusse’s radical leftwing newspaper, under his given name, E.A. Blair. On 6 October 1928, Orwell’s first article as a professional writer, ‘La Censure en Angleterre’, appeared and was followed, on 23rd March 1929, by ‘John Galsworthy’. One of his opening paragraphs has a description of Galsworthy which was the kind of writer the young Eric Blair was himself to become after he emerged as “Orwell”:
<blockquote>
“John Galsworthy is a completely different kind of writer. There is nothing about him of the elegant gentleman-littérateur. It is at once his strength and his weakness that he concerned himself less with art than with the cruelty, injustice and folly of his time and his country. Author of some twenty-five plays and twenty-five novels and collections of short stories, he is primarily a moralist and social philosopher. Born into the upper middle class (the class of the rich bourgeois which gives England most of her legislators, lawyers, army and naval officers, as well as her dilettantes and minor poets), he made this class the particular butt of his attacks. Here indeed lies the theme of everything he wrote—the conflict between the comfortably-off English philistines and something indefinably softer in texture, more sensitive and less virile. Only rarely was he content with mere storytelling.”
</blockquote>
<h2>A Hanging (1931)</h2>
The Adelphi, Volume II, Number 5, New Series, August 1931
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0322/'><img width="1325" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?fit=1325%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?w=1325&ssl=1 1325w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?resize=323%2C500&ssl=1 323w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?resize=518%2C800&ssl=1 518w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?resize=768%2C1187&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0322.jpg?resize=994%2C1536&ssl=1 994w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0319/'><img width="1536" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0319.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Eric Blair had first written to the editor of The New Adelphi, from Paris during August 1929 (the name of this periodical was tweaked several times). This is the first evidence of his connection with the long-lived English literary journal (1923-1955) which was to publish fifty of his essays and reviews, including his first significant pieces of writing, ‘The Spike’ and ‘A Hanging’, in 1931. You can see that he was still experimenting with his name which is variously listed as E.A. Blair, Eric A. Blair or Eric Blair in these early contributions. By the time Down and Out in Paris and London was published, in January 1933, the ‘Adelphi circle’, who actively supported him until his death in 1950, included some of his best friends.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0323/'><img width="1340" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?fit=1340%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?w=1340&ssl=1 1340w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?resize=327%2C500&ssl=1 327w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?resize=523%2C800&ssl=1 523w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?resize=768%2C1174&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0323.jpg?resize=1005%2C1536&ssl=1 1005w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0315/'><img width="1536" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0315.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
 
<h2>Trosečníkem v Paříži a Londýně (1935)</h2>
Prague: Central Workers Publishers, 1935
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0283/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0283-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0284/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0284-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Translated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kraus_(writer)">Karl Krauss</a> with a memorable cover by <a href="https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_15549104">Jaroslav Šváb</a>, this Czech translation of Down and Out in Paris and London) is very difficult to procure. Orwell wrote to his agent, Leonard Moore, on the 14th May noting that he had been posted a copy:
<blockquote>
“Thanks also for sending the copies of the Czech translation of “Down and Out.” Of course I can’t judge what kind of translation it is, but at any rate they have got it up quite nicely.”
</blockquote>
If you know more about this edition and how it came to be translated so early on in Orwell’s career, please email or comment below. I would appreciate it!
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Shooting an Elephant (1936)</h2>
New Writing 2: Autumn 1936, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1936
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/new-writing/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/new-writing-2-jpg/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/New-writing-2.jpg.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
I am very pleased to own a fine copy in a dust jacket of this first appearance of one of Orwell’s most anthologised and significant personal essays, Shooting an Elephant. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lehmann">John Lehmann</a>, a significant 20th century literary figure, edited <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Writing">New Writing</a> until the year Orwell died, 1950. Although biographers have never conclusively proved that Orwell shot an elephant while serving in Burma, the notes on contributors in this anthology describes the piece as “his autobiographical sketch”. While not as emphatic as Sonia Orwell’s, ”Of course he shot the fucking elephant” it is certainly evidence for the event being more than merely a literary, imaginative one.
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Democracy in the British Army (1939)</h2>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversy_(magazine)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Left Forum</a>, No.36, September, Independent Labour Party, 1939
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0267/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0267-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0268/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0268-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Orwell joined the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Labour_Party">Independent Labour Party</a> in June, 1938. He explained why in an article, published in The New Leader, that same month:
<blockquote>
“Because the I.L.P. is the only British party—at any rate the only one large enough to be worth considering—which aims at anything I should regard as Socialism. I do not mean that I have lost all faith in the Labour Party. My most earnest hope is that the Labour Party will win a clear majority in the next General Election. But we know what the history of the Labour Party has been, and we know the terrible temptation of the present moment—the temptation to fling every principle overboard in order to prepare for an Imperialist war.”
</blockquote>
‘Democracy in the British Army’ was published in the I.L.P. journal a little over a year later. It is not a memorable essay but was written during a period when Orwell’s own views were changing significantly due to the paradox that the reality of another war was creating for “the Left”:
<blockquote>
“But we happen to be at a moment when the rise of Hitler has scared the official leaders of the Left into an attitude not far removed from jingoism. Large numbers of Left-wing publicists are almost openly agitating for war. Without discussing this subject at length, it can be pointed out that a Left-wing party which, within a capitalist society, becomes a war party, has already thrown up the sponge, because it is demanding a policy which can only be carried out by its opponents. The Labour leaders are intermittently aware of this—witness their shufflings on the subject of conscription. Hence, in among the cries of “Firm front!” “British prestige!” etc., there mingles a quite contradictory line of talk.”
</blockquote>
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Young British Writers – on the Way Up (1939)</h2>
Auden, WH and Isherwood, Christopher, <a href="https://archive.vogue.com/article/1939/8/young-british-writers-on-the-way-up">‘Young British Writers – on the Way Up’</a>, Vogue, August, 15, 1939
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-22942" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vogue.jpg?resize=454%2C600&ssl=1" alt="" width="454" height="600" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vogue.jpg?w=454&ssl=1 454w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vogue.jpg?resize=378%2C500&ssl=1 378w" sizes="(max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
This feature article, written by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, came as something of a shock when I first discovered it. I knew that Allene Talmey had written a “spotlight” on Orwell in <a href="https://archive.vogue.com/issue/19460915">Vogue (15 September 1946)</a> which included photos taken in his “top-floor flat in London, with his twenty-odd-months-old son”. In her article, Orwell is described as “a plain speaker, a direct writer” and as “a leftist… a defender of freedom, even though most of the time he violently disagrees with the people beside whom he is fighting”.
The Auden and Isherwood feature is notable as Orwell was not a well-known figure prior to the publication of Animal Farm. I was a little disappointed, when the magazine arrived, that no photos appeared in this 1939 article. However, it is fascinating to see the judgements made about Orwell on the eve of the Second World War by his much better-known literary peers:
<blockquote>
“Among the younger novelists in England, we have three such reporters—all men of great honesty and considerable talent: George Orwell, Ralph Bates, and Arthur Calder-Marshall. Orwell’s career has been extraordinary. Educated at Eton, he has become a voluntary exile from his own class, preferring to inhabit the bitter and sordid world of the unemployed. A period of service with the Burmese police produced Burmese Days, a brilliant attack on British imperialism in the East. Burmese Days is the only novel which can bear comparison with Forster’s Passage to India. Orwell lacks Forster’s humanity. His irony is coarser, and his satire less delicate. But Burmese Days is, nevertheless, a thrilling and moving story of one man’s failure in his struggle with the official machine. Returning to Europe, Orwell wandered about, acquiring the terrible experiences which are recorded in The Road to Wigan Pier, The Clergyman s Daughter, and Down and Out in London and Paris. Not since Jack London’s People of the Abyss has anybody written so frankly about the Lower Depths of English life and its inhabitants, the miserable, huddled figures in their bundles of rags whom you can see any evening, trying to snatch a few moments of police-disturbed sleep on the benches of the Embankment and Trafalgar Square.”
</blockquote>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-22943" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Young-British-Writers.png?resize=800%2C530&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="530" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Young-British-Writers.png?resize=800%2C530&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Young-British-Writers.png?resize=500%2C331&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Young-British-Writers.png?resize=768%2C509&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Young-British-Writers.png?w=1344&ssl=1 1344w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">The Proletarian Writer (1940)</h2>
The Listener, BBC, December 19th, 1940, Vol XXIV, No 623
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/the-listener-2/'><img width="600" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener-1.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/the-listener/'><img width="800" height="595" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?fit=800%2C595&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?resize=500%2C372&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?resize=800%2C595&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?resize=768%2C571&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/The-Listener.jpg?resize=1536%2C1142&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a>
Orwell’s opinions about “proletarian literature” are on display in this print version of the broadcast:
Hawkins: I have always doubted if there is such a thing as proletarian literature—or ever could be. The first question is what people mean by it. What do you mean by it? You would expect it to mean literature written specifically for the proletariat, and read by them, but does it? Orwell: No, obviously not. In that case the most definitely proletarian literature would be some of our morning papers. But you can see by the existence of publications like New Writing, or the Unity Theatre, for instance, that the term has a sort of meaning, though unfortunately there are several different ideas mixed up in it. What people mean by it, roughly speaking, is a literature in which the viewpoint of the working class, which is supposed to be completely different from that of the richer classes, gets a hearing. And that, of course, has got mixed up with Socialist propaganda. I don’t think the people who throw this expression about mean literature written by proletarians. W. H. Davies was a proletarian, but he would not be called a proletarian writer. Paul Potts would be called a proletarian writer, but he is not a proletarian. The reason why I am doubtful of the whole conception is that I don’t believe the proletariat can create an independent literature while they are not the dominant class. I believe that their literature is and must be bourgeois literature with a slightly different slant. After all, so much that is supposed to be new is simply the old standing on its head. The poems that were written about the Spanish civil war, for instance, were simply a deflated version of the stuff that Rupert Brooke and Co. were writing in 1914.
Orwell’s years at the BBC led to a deepening of his connections to literary London. <a href="https://archive.org/details/wheniwasmemoirof0000hawk/mode/2up">Desmond Hawkins, in his memoir</a>, wrote:
<blockquote>
“What occupied me principally in the autumn of 1940 was some – thing quite new to me – broadcasting. I had written scripts for the BBC, with John Pudney’s encouragement, but I had never spoken into a microphone. Now I was invited to present a weekly series of twelve programmes in which writers of different kinds – journalists, poets, short-story writers, critics, novelists, etc. – talked to me about their work. With the producer, Christopher Salmon, I worked out an impressive list of speakers – Tom Driberg (alias ‘William Hickey’ of the Daily Express), Sir Hugh Walpole, Walter de la Mare, Stephen Spender, V.S. Pritchett, T.S. Eliot, Cyril Connolly and George Orwell among them – and each Friday night at 7.40 p.m. we broadcast from an underground studio in Broadcasting House. A signal in the studio of a particularly unwelcome sort meant that the watchers on the roof had blown their whistles to indicate that enemy bombers were uncomfortably close. This was usually accompanied by the closure or power-reduction of various BBC transmitters, to confuse German navigators who used BBC transmissions as aids in direction-finding. Those listening at home came to know that an abrupt drop in volume meant that London was under attack.”
</blockquote>
Hawkins, who had been contributing a regular ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Letters">London Letter</a>’ to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partisan_Review">Partisan Review</a>, a leftwing and deeply anti-Stalinist American journal, recommended that Orwell should replace him. 
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Talking to India (1943)</h2>
Orwell, George (ed.), <a href="https://orwell.ru/library/books/htm_file/tti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talking to India; A Selection of English Language Broadcasts to India</a>, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd Book, 1943
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-16475" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?resize=400%2C599&ssl=1" alt="" width="400" height="599" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?w=634&ssl=1 634w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Talking-to-India.jpg?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1 200w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Collectors of Orwell’s output find this selection of his English language broadcasts to India particularly challenging to find, especially with a dust jacket. It took me years to collect an affordable one. Orwell edited the book, wrote the introduction and contributed, ‘The Rediscovery of Europe: Literature Between the Wars’ which was broadcast in March 1942. It is worth quoting a lengthy excerpt from his introduction:
<blockquote>
“The B.B.C. broadcasts in forty-seven languages, including twelve Asiatic languages. Five of these belong to the mainland of India, but Hindustani is the only (Indian) language in which transmissions are made every day. The Hindustani broadcasts, including news bulletins, occupy eight and a quarter hours a week. There is also an English language programme intended primarily for the European population and the British troops.
But in addition to these programmes, three quarters of an hour every day is set aside for English broadcasts aimed at the Indian and not the British population. It is from this period that the talks in this book have been selected. The main reason for keeping this service going is that English, although spoken by comparatively few people, is the only true lingua franca of India. About five million Indians are literate in English (including some hundreds of thousands of Eurasians, Parsis and Jews) and several millions more can speak it. The total number of English speakers cannot be more than 3 per cent of the Indian population, but they are distributed all over the subcontinent, and also in Burma and Malaya, whereas Hindustani, spoken by 250 millions, has hardly any currency outside Northern and Central India. In addition, the people who speak English are also the people likeliest to have access to short-wave radio sets.
The work of organising and presenting the English language programmes from London has been done mainly by Indians, in particular by Mr. Z. A. Bokhari. A fairly large proportion of the speakers have also been Indians or other Orientals. Much that is broadcast (for instance, plays, features and music) is not suitable for reproduction in print, but otherwise the talks included in this book are a representative selection. It will be seen that they are predominantly “cultural” talks, with a literary bias. Frequent or regular speakers in this service have been E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, Herbert Read, J. F. Horrabin, William Empson, Desmond Hawkins, Stephen Spender, Edmund Blunden, Clemence Dane, Bonamy Dobrée, Cyril Connolly, Rebecca West, and other writers have also broadcast from time to time. At least one half-hour programme every month has been devoted to broadcasting contemporary English poetry. Obviously the listening public for such programmes must be a small one, but it is also a public well worth reaching, since it is likely to be composed largely of University students. Some hundreds of thousands of Indians possess degrees in English literature, and scores of thousands more are studying for such degrees at this moment. There is also a large English-language Indian Press with affiliations in this country, and a respectable number of Indian novelists and essayists (Ahmed Ali, Mulk Raj Anand, Cedric Dover and Narayana Menon, to name only four) who prefer to write in English. It is these people, or rather the class they represent, that our literary broadcasts have been aimed at.”
</blockquote>
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">World Affairs (1945)</h2>
Junior, London: Children’s Digest Foundation, 1945
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-22904" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0271-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Orwell’s contribution to this “collection of stories, articles, and pictures for the junior members of the family” was formulated while he was serving as <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/07/13/orwell-paris-war-correspondent/">a war correspondent</a> in France and Germany during 1945. It is not a cheery piece for the children. 
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Why I Write I (1946)</h2>
<a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html#part47" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘Why I Write’</a>, Gangrel, Number 4, Summer 1946
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=16380'><img width="778" height="957" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/gangrel-cover.jpg?fit=778%2C957&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/gangrel-cover.jpg?w=778&ssl=1 778w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/gangrel-cover.jpg?resize=244%2C300&ssl=1 244w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/gangrel-cover.jpg?resize=768%2C945&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 778px) 100vw, 778px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=16381'><img width="875" height="985" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gangrel-2.jpg?fit=875%2C985&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gangrel-2.jpg?w=875&ssl=1 875w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gangrel-2.jpg?resize=266%2C300&ssl=1 266w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Gangrel-2.jpg?resize=768%2C865&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 875px) 100vw, 875px" /></a>
In the same year Orwell was being published by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Month">American Book of the Month Club</a> and written-up in Vogue, he was still obliging the editors of short-lived, radical journals by submitting work for publication. ‘Why I Write’ is arguably Orwell’s most widely-read essay but how many people realise that several authors were asked to contribute a response, including Henry Miller who declined, for publication in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangrel_(magazine)">Gangrel </a>(Scottish vernacular for ‘vagrant’)? When one flips the magazine over, there is an advert for another journal, Death (which I have managed to procure)!
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/scan_0003-2/'><img width="1158" height="1697" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?fit=1158%2C1697&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?w=1158&ssl=1 1158w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?resize=341%2C500&ssl=1 341w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?resize=546%2C800&ssl=1 546w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?resize=768%2C1125&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Scan_0003.jpg?resize=1048%2C1536&ssl=1 1048w" sizes="(max-width: 1158px) 100vw, 1158px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_6299/'><img width="576" height="567" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_6299.jpg?fit=576%2C567&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_6299.jpg?w=576&ssl=1 576w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_6299.jpg?resize=500%2C492&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" /></a>
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Kolgosp Tvarin (1947)</h2>
Munich: Vidavnitstvi Prometei, 1947
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-18922 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin.jpg?resize=598%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="598" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?resize=598%2C800&ssl=1 598w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?resize=374%2C500&ssl=1 374w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1028&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?resize=1148%2C1536&ssl=1 1148w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?resize=1530%2C2048&ssl=1 1530w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Kolgosp-Tvarin-scaled.jpg?w=1913&ssl=1 1913w" sizes="(max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Kolgosp Tvarin, the first Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm by Ivan Chernyatinskii (pseudonym) with an important preface by Orwell has quite <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/02/27/the-ukrainian-animal-farm/">a publication history</a>. Ihor Szewczenko (1922-2009) was a talented linguist who had been producing pocket-sized Ukrainian-English dictionaries for refugees in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displaced_persons_camps_in_post%E2%80%93World_War_II_Europe">displaced persons camps</a> in Germany, often in exchange for canned food, when he read Orwell’s satire and recognised the powerful relevance of the allegory. Szewczenko, who had nearly finished translating the novel by the time he wrote to Orwell seeking ‘authorisation’, explained that effect the story had on Soviet refugees who had been listening to his ad hoc verbal translation:
“The effect was striking. They approved of almost all of your interpretations. They were profoundly affected by such scenes as that of animals singing ‘Beasts of England’ on the hill. Here I saw, that in spite of their attention being primarily drawn on detecting ‘concordances’ between the reality they lived in and the tale, they very vividly reacted to the ‘absolute’ values of the book, to the tale ‘types’, to the underlying convictions of the author and so on. Besides, the mood of the book seems to correspond with their own actual state of mind.”
Ihor Sevcenko’s daughter contacted me recently as she has <a href="https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/rare-edition-of-orwells-animal-farm-sold-for-nearly-2k-to-daughter-of-translator">a project to trace the journey that copies of Kolgosp Tvarin</a> made from the Displaced Persons Camps to their current owners. Please contact me if you can assist.
<h2>Politics & the English Language: An Essay Printed as a Christmas Keepsake for the Typophiles (1947)</h2>
Number XIX of the Typophile Monographs, Herbert W. Simpson, Inc., 1947
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22987 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0332.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
This is the first bespoke edition of Orwell’s work, illustrated by Merrill Snethen. The essay, originally published in Horizon during 1946, is one of 320 printed for this bespoke edition, although two other versions, another 150 copies in total exist. Does anyone have one of the 50 copies for “the Friends of Paul Bennett” or of the other 100 for Herbert W. Simpson?
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">Les Animaux Partout! (1948)</h2>
Réalités Littéraires, Monaco: Odile Pathé, 1948
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-21648 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/27960102609_502c20b695_c.jpeg?resize=537%2C799&ssl=1" alt="" width="537" height="799" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/27960102609_502c20b695_c.jpeg?w=537&ssl=1 537w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/27960102609_502c20b695_c.jpeg?resize=336%2C500&ssl=1 336w" sizes="(max-width: 537px) 100vw, 537px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
This French magazine format edition of Animal Farm is a real curiosity. Twenty-year-old Odile Pathé, daughter of Charles Pathé, was printing anti-Stalinist publications in Monaco (as such work was politically near-impossible to publish in Paris at the time). Orwell wrote to Yvonne Davet in April, 1946:
<blockquote>
“Two or three days ago I met Mademoiselle Odile Pathé, the publisher who is going to bring out Animal Farm. I didn’t know she was in London, but she rang me up. I told her you had translated Homage to Catalonia, and that you had sent her the translation, but I suppose she won’t be back in France until next week. She seemed to me to have a lot more courage than most publishers, and she explained that because she is in Monaco, she has less to fear than the others, except for the paper.1 In any case Homage to Catalonia is a much less dangerous book than Animal Farm. It seems that the Communists now exert direct censorship on French publishers (I have heard they have ‘prohibited’ Gallimard publishing Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls), and it’s quite clear that they wouldn’t let Animal Farm get through if they could find a way of suppressing it. If Mademoiselle Pathé has the courage to publish one book, she would have the courage to publish the other, if it seemed worth her while financially.”
</blockquote>
At this time, Orwell provided Pathé with a photograph which later appeared on the inside cover of this magazine edition. 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22931 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?resize=800%2C619&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="619" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?resize=800%2C619&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?resize=500%2C387&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?resize=768%2C594&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?resize=1536%2C1189&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/26169854_10214546879326370_8781150242118194851_n.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h2 data-rich-text-format-boundary="true">British Pamphleteers – Volume 1 (1948)</h2>
London: Allan Wingate, 1948.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/britishpamphleteers/'><img width="528" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?fit=528%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?w=1136&ssl=1 1136w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?resize=330%2C500&ssl=1 330w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?resize=528%2C800&ssl=1 528w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?resize=768%2C1164&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteers.jpeg?resize=1013%2C1536&ssl=1 1013w" sizes="(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/britishpamphleteersb/'><img width="526" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?fit=526%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?w=1136&ssl=1 1136w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?resize=329%2C500&ssl=1 329w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?resize=526%2C800&ssl=1 526w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?resize=768%2C1168&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/britishpamphleteersb.jpeg?resize=1010%2C1536&ssl=1 1010w" sizes="(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px" /></a>
 
Orwell, along with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Reynolds">Reginald Reynolds</a> edited <a href="https://orwellsocietyblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/british-pamphleteers-volumes-one-and-two/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Pamphleteers Volume 1: From the 16th Century the 18th Century</a>. Reynolds was also member of the I.L.P., as was his wife and another of Orwell’s friends, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Mannin">Ethel Mannin. </a>Orwell was something of an expert in this field and often considered himself a pamphleteer of sorts. He bequeathed his own extraordinary <a href="https://www.bl.uk/pdf/orwell-pamphlets-inventory-final.pdf">collection of political pamphlets</a> to the British library.
<h2>The Heart of the Matter (1948)</h2>
The New Yorker, July 17, 1948
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22909 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0269-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Orwell did not only publish in ‘little magazines’ as one can see from this review of Graham Greene’s novel, The Heart of the Matter, which appeared in The New Yorker. 
<h2>Orwell’s Strange World of 1984 (1949)</h2>
Life, July 4, 1949
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0254/'><img width="2560" height="1920" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?w=2560&ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0254-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0253/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0253-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0255/'><img width="2560" height="1920" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?w=2560&ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0255-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0257/'><img width="1628" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?fit=1628%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?w=1628&ssl=1 1628w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?resize=318%2C500&ssl=1 318w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?resize=509%2C800&ssl=1 509w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1208&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?resize=977%2C1536&ssl=1 977w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-scaled.jpg?resize=1302%2C2048&ssl=1 1302w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0256/'><img width="1575" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?fit=1575%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?w=1575&ssl=1 1575w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?resize=308%2C500&ssl=1 308w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?resize=492%2C800&ssl=1 492w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1249&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?resize=945%2C1536&ssl=1 945w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0256-scaled.jpg?resize=1260%2C2048&ssl=1 1260w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0257-2/'><img width="1628" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1628%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?w=1628&ssl=1 1628w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?resize=318%2C500&ssl=1 318w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?resize=509%2C800&ssl=1 509w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1208&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?resize=977%2C1536&ssl=1 977w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0257-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1302%2C2048&ssl=1 1302w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Orwell’s final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was widely reviewed. Often, mostly in the USA, the reviewers misunderstood that Orwell was satirising totalitarianism and interpreted the book as a swipe at the Attlee Labour Government. Life magazine published some lengthy excerpts from the novel, using them to editorialise about individuals having their lives regimented by the state. Basically, the magazine attacked socialism. Life‘s popular and talented cartoonist, Abner Dean, illustrated the piece (and these images ended-up gracing a number of editions of the novel, especially translations).
<h2>Pamâti Katalonii (1950s)</h2>
Pamâti Katalonii, Paris: Editions de la Seine, Paris, c. 1950s
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0320/'><img width="1536" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0320.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0321/'><img width="1536" height="2048" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?fit=1536%2C2048&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0321.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
This Russian language edition of Homage to Catalonia is part of a print run (of many Orwell titles and other works forbidden in the USSR) that was funded for many years by the American government. They would pay printers to run off cheap copies of these ‘seditious’ works then get travellers and diplomats to take them back to Russia in their luggage. It was a Cold War operation. They are exceedingly rare but there is one copy in a library in Poland. Masha Karp’s soon-to-be-published book, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/george-orwell-and-russia-9781788317139/">George Orwell and Russia</a>, will have a chapter devoted to this and other publications of this kind.
<h2>Animal Farm Letters (1984)</h2>
Bloomington: Private Press of Fredric Brewer, 1984
 
<figure id="attachment_17712" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17712" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-17712 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/52552.jpeg?resize=600%2C930&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="930" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/52552.jpeg?w=600&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/52552.jpeg?resize=194%2C300&ssl=1 194w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-17712" class="wp-caption-text">About 500 of Orwell’s letters to his literary agent have survived. Nearly 100 of these letters were acquired by the Lilly Library from a London dealer in 1959. Michael Shelden edited and annotated this collection of Orwell’s letters to Leonard Moore, which open a window onto Orwell’s publishing history for the period 1932-1949 and his struggles to have Animal Farm published. This edition was privately printed and limited to just 200 copies. My copy is #167 and in fine condition. </figcaption></figure>
<h2>Bookshop Memories (1987)</h2>

Arethusa Pers Herber Blockland, 1987
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-22986" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0330.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Bespoke editions of Orwell’s work have been popular for generations. This is a particularly gorgeous edition of his essay about working in the Westrope’s bookshop at Hampstead, in London. Designed and printed by Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lion Press, on Zerkall mould-made paper, with a stunning wood-engraving by Hilary Paynter and a foreword by W.E. Butler. My one is #144 of 150 numbered copies.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-22990" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0331.jpg?w=1536&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h2>Samizdat editions</h2>
<blockquote>
“Samizdat: I write it myself, edit it myself, censor it myself, publish it myself, distribute it myself, and spend jail time for it myself.” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Bukovsky">Vladimir Bukovsky</a> 
</blockquote>
Although they are expensive, and hard to find, my collection now includes illegally printed Orwells from Eastern Europe.
Eseje, Warsaw: Oficyna WE, 1983. 48pp. Polish samizdat edition translated by Teresa Jelenska. Original xeroxed decorative staple-stitched wrappers. The essays are ‘The Prevention of Literature’; ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’; and ‘Raffles and Miss Blandish’.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22901 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0277-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Hódolat Katalóniának, Budapest: AB Független Kiadó, 1986. 127pp. This is the first Hungarian mimeograph samizdat edition of Homage to Catalonia.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22902 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0281-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Állati Gazdaság, Budapest: AB Publisher House, 1988. 64pp. This is a Hungarian samizdat edition of Animal Farm and the title translates as Animal Economy or Animal Agriculture. It states 1984 on the cover but was published in 1988. It is staple bound in cerise illustrated card covers with uncredited original illustrations on most pages.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22903 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0279-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h2>Eric, or Little by Little (1858)</h2>
London: Adam and Charles Black, 1894
Orwell hated this book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric,_or,_Little_by_Little">Eric, or, Little by Little</a>. He disliked the way others associated it with his given name, “Eric” but there were plenty of other reasons Orwell would have hated the book. The protagonist is the son of a British colonial official and his wife stationed in India, echoing Orwell’s own family story. The book has a particularly earnest and didactic tone. I have never been even remotely able to read too much of it all, let alone finish the thing but it an excellent Orwellian literary curio.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0273/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0273-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/04/08/orwellian-literary-curios/img_0274-2/'><img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1 375w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_0274-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
There are many more rare and interesting publications from Orwell’s pen you can browse in my <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/">Orwell Studies Library</a>! 


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<pubDate>Sat, 08 Apr 2023 12:02:35 +0200</pubDate>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Orwell’s Ayah]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXUf5evVOiIH02W0GqTRQSgk</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/9dkrneAhca2GrLzWlQSUXMb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell’s Ayah" title="Orwell’s Ayah"> <h3>“The ayah is a most important personage in the Anglo-Indian nursery, one on whom very often the whole future health and happiness of the English child depends, and yet how little care is often taken in her selection!” <a href="http://“The ayah is a most important personage in the Anglo-Indian nursery, one on whom very often the whole future health and happiness of the English child depends, and yet how little care is often taken in her selection!” The English Baby in India and How to rear it 107" data-wplink-url-error="true">The English Baby in India</a> (1893)</h3>
On the day Eric Blair was baptised at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_Beyond_Missionary_Union#:~:text=The%20Regions%20Beyond%20Missionary%20Union,in%20the%20regions%20beyond%20you%22.">Regions Beyond Missionary Union</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzaffarpur">Muzaffarpur</a>, he was photographed with <a href="https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/44UCL_INST/12373617550004761">his ayah</a>. We do not know her name or life-story and it is unlikely that either will ever be recovered.
However, ever the optimist, I am planning a visit to India for further research into <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/24/review-orwell-and-empire-by-douglas-kerr/">Orwell’s Anglo-Indian heritage</a>. As ever, collaborating with a wide-variety of experts – before, during and after the field trip – will be essential (and has already stated to yield results).
My research has been primarily focused on <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/orwell/">‘Orwell before he was Orwell’ </a>for some time. There is much to learn about <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">his parents</a> and wider <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/11/17/orwells-scottish-ancestry-slavery-2/">family history dating back into the 17th century</a>. I have been particularly interested <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2018/11/17/orwell-smoke-opium-burma/">in the 1920s </a>and Eric Blair’s <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/06/13/orwell-in-burma-the-two-erics/">experiences in Burma</a> and <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/paris-collection/">France</a>.
Last year, while researching <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/tag/orwell-in-paris/">in Paris</a>, I purchased a rare postcard which showed three ayahs in a studio setting. The message, written in French, explained the <a href="https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/europe-europeans-and-world/gender-and-empire/ayahs-in-british-india">role of the ayah</a> in India:
<blockquote>
Dear Cousin, Your interesting cards are always welcome. Today I’m showing you our servants, and you can see on this card the type of ‘nannies’ we have here. These women look after the babies and take them on walks. All the best.
</blockquote>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/01/24/orwells-ayah/ayah-postcard/'><img width="548" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?fit=548%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?w=1754&ssl=1 1754w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?resize=343%2C500&ssl=1 343w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?resize=548%2C800&ssl=1 548w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1121&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?resize=1052%2C1536&ssl=1 1052w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-scaled.jpg?resize=1403%2C2048&ssl=1 1403w" sizes="(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/01/24/orwells-ayah/ayah-postcard-two/'><img width="554" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?fit=554%2C800&ssl=1" class="attachment-large size-large" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?w=1772&ssl=1 1772w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?resize=346%2C500&ssl=1 346w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?resize=554%2C800&ssl=1 554w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1110&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?resize=1063%2C1536&ssl=1 1063w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ayah-postcard-two-scaled.jpg?resize=1418%2C2048&ssl=1 1418w" sizes="(max-width: 554px) 100vw, 554px" /></a>
Coincidentally, I arrived in London (a few days after finding this postcard) to media coverage of <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/">English Heritage unveiling a Blue Plaque</a> commemorating the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahs%27_Home">Ayahs’ Home</a> in Hackney. The plight of South and East Asian women, who worked for British families as nannies, was not something I had previously considered. Horribly, these women were regularly abandoned by their employers in London and <a href="http://hackneypost.co.uk/there-is-power-in-a-name-hackney-museum-uncovers-the-lost-history-of-colonial-nannies/">The Ayahs’ Home, which operated from 1900-1921</a>, provided safety and shelter for those who were unable to finance the return voyage to the sub-continent and had few options for further employment.
<figure id="attachment_22400" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22400" style="width: 637px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-22400" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Front_Entrance_of_the_Ayahs_Home.jpg?resize=637%2C497&ssl=1" alt="" width="637" height="497" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Front_Entrance_of_the_Ayahs_Home.jpg?w=637&ssl=1 637w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Front_Entrance_of_the_Ayahs_Home.jpg?resize=500%2C390&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22400" class="wp-caption-text">London City Mission magazine (1900) Public Domain</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/International-Inequalities/Research/Global-Economies-of-Care/Ayah-and-Amah-International-Research-Network">A growing network of researchers</a>, including some <a href="https://ayahsandamahs.com/project/">based in Australia</a>, have been <a href="https://southasianwriters.com/2020/08/12/the-hidden-history-of-the-ayahs-of-britain/">‘captivated’ by ‘the stories of the ayahs’ </a>and are doing superb work to find out more and share that knowledge. This virtual exhibition, <a href="https://ayahsandamahs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945</a>, is an excellent example of what is being achieved!
<a href="https://www.transcolonialjourneys.com/turning-the-page">The literature</a>, written by Anglo-Indians, featuring ayahs, is extensive. <a href="https://archive.org/details/b28104006/page/n15/mode/2up">Manuals</a> for British families living on the sub-continent about raising children are a window on the attitudes towards the ayahs. The voices and stories of the ayahs themselves are very hard to hear.
However, it is encouraging that <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2022/10/agreement-with-mina-ayah.html">an agreement </a>between a British family and their ayah (from 1896) has recently been uncovered and shared by the British Library at the <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/index.html">Untold Lives Blog</a>. 
<figure id="attachment_22413" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22413" style="width: 580px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-22413" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/mina-ayah.jpeg?resize=580%2C848&ssl=1" alt="" width="580" height="848" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/mina-ayah.jpeg?w=580&ssl=1 580w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/mina-ayah.jpeg?resize=342%2C500&ssl=1 342w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/mina-ayah.jpeg?resize=547%2C800&ssl=1 547w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22413" class="wp-caption-text">Signed agreement with Mina Ayah of 15 Free School Street, Calcutta, to travel to England in the service of Mrs G F Greenhill on the SS Bengal, 9 March 1896 – Mss Eur F754/2/1 via the Untold Lives Blog</figcaption></figure>
Did the Blair family have such a contract with their ayah? I can find no passenger records for Ida Blair, who returned to England with her children in 1904. Did their ayah remain in Bihar?
<h1>H. Bailey</h1>
The other photo, taken on the day Orwell was baptised, was with his mother. Who was H. Bailey? Did he take other photos on the day? Surely a proud father would have a portrait taken with his son? What about Marjorie Blair, Orwell’s sister, who would have been cared for by this same ayah? 
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/ida-with-eric/'><img width="1774" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?fit=1774%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?w=1774&ssl=1 1774w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=346%2C500&ssl=1 346w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=554%2C800&ssl=1 554w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1108&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=1064%2C1536&ssl=1 1064w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=1419%2C2048&ssl=1 1419w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/eric-blair-with-ayah/'><img width="1776" height="2542" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?fit=1776%2C2542&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?w=1776&ssl=1 1776w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=349%2C500&ssl=1 349w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=559%2C800&ssl=1 559w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=768%2C1099&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=1073%2C1536&ssl=1 1073w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=1431%2C2048&ssl=1 1431w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
Did Bailey know about the family’s challenge with <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/07/23/orwells-rats/">rats</a>? Did he and Orwell’s father, R.W, Blair, loiter at the Tirpoot Planters’ Club in Mozufferpore together?
What records remain and where can they be located? Already some interesting connections are apparent from the primary sources available.
H. Bailey is listed in the 1895 and 1897 editions of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker%27s_Indian_Directory">Thacker’s Directory</a> as an ‘assistant’ at a large photography studio, <a href="https://mapacademy.io/article/johnston-hoffmann/">Johnson & Hoffmann</a>, in Calcutta. Amazingly, this studio was the one that <a href="https://www.paperjewels.org/postcard/group-ayahs">produced the postcard </a>(in 1905) of the ayahs I had discovered in Paris.
<figure id="attachment_22391" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22391" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22391 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Johnston-Hoffmann-ad-1912-Thos-Cook-p.221.png?resize=800%2C667&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="667" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Johnston-Hoffmann-ad-1912-Thos-Cook-p.221.png?resize=800%2C667&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Johnston-Hoffmann-ad-1912-Thos-Cook-p.221.png?resize=500%2C417&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Johnston-Hoffmann-ad-1912-Thos-Cook-p.221.png?resize=768%2C640&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Johnston-Hoffmann-ad-1912-Thos-Cook-p.221.png?w=902&ssl=1 902w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22391" class="wp-caption-text">Thos Cook (1912) p.221</figcaption></figure>
<a href="http://www.indiaphotographs.co.uk/">Hugh Rayner </a>and <a href="https://www.cartedevisite.co.uk/more-info/about-2/ron-cosens/">Ron Cozens</a> have been intellectually generous, sharing their considerable expertise and providing photographs from their collections by Bailey. There is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_card">cabinet print</a> taken in “Mozufferpore” (probably of Martha & Mabel Sutton) and another, with the address 100 Malvern Street, Stapenhill (in Derbyshire).
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/01/24/orwells-ayah/h-bailey-cabinet-print/'><img width="842" height="1280" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/H.-Bailey-Cabinet-print.jpeg?fit=842%2C1280&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/H.-Bailey-Cabinet-print.jpeg?w=842&ssl=1 842w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/H.-Bailey-Cabinet-print.jpeg?resize=329%2C500&ssl=1 329w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/H.-Bailey-Cabinet-print.jpeg?resize=526%2C800&ssl=1 526w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/H.-Bailey-Cabinet-print.jpeg?resize=768%2C1168&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/01/24/orwells-ayah/bailey-h-cdv01-stapenhill-copyright-ron-cosens/'><img width="793" height="1264" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bailey-H-cdv01-Stapenhill-copyright-Ron-Cosens-rotated.jpg?fit=793%2C1264&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bailey-H-cdv01-Stapenhill-copyright-Ron-Cosens-rotated.jpg?w=793&ssl=1 793w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bailey-H-cdv01-Stapenhill-copyright-Ron-Cosens-rotated.jpg?resize=314%2C500&ssl=1 314w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bailey-H-cdv01-Stapenhill-copyright-Ron-Cosens-rotated.jpg?resize=502%2C800&ssl=1 502w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Bailey-H-cdv01-Stapenhill-copyright-Ron-Cosens-rotated.jpg?resize=768%2C1224&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px" /></a>
<div class="mceTemp"> </div>
I have spent some time trying to find out more about Bailey but he is proving very elusive.
Can anyone assist?
Perhaps primary sources pertaining to Orwell’s Ayah and his family’s life, in Motihari and surrounds, still exist?
Ideas? Thoughts? Advice?
<h3>REFERENCES</h3>
<a href="https://www.transcolonialjourneys.com/exhibition">Ayahs & Amahs: Transcolonial Journeys,</a> September 8, 2022 – June 8, 2023 <accessed 23rd January 2023>
<a href="https://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=2751">Batty, Beatrice Braithwaite</a>, Effie and her Ayah; or, the Faithful Monkey and her Little White Mistress, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873
Chatelain, Clara de, Story of Henrietta and the Ayah, or, Do Not Trust to Appearances; My Little Schoolfellow, or, One Good Turn Deserves Another, London: James Hogg & Sons, 1864
Khan, Omar, <a href="https://www.paperjewels.org/daily-gem-categories">Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj</a>, Mapin, 2018
Kingscote, Mrs Howard, The English Baby in India and How to Rear It, London: J&A Churchill, 1893
Sherwood, Mrs. Mary Martha, The Ayah and Lady. An Indian Story, Boston: S.T. Armstrong and Crocker & Brewster
Tucker, Charlotte <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte\_Maria\_Tucker">(A.L.O.E.)</a>, <a href="https://archive.org/details/edithherayahothe00aloe/edithherayahothe00aloe">Edith and Her Ayah, and Other Stories</a>, London: T. Nelson & Sons
Untold Lives Blog, <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2022/10/agreement-with-mina-ayah.html">Agreement with Mina Ayah</a>, 18 October 2022 <accessed 23rd January 2023>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:43:22 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Nineteen Eighty-Four OR 1984?]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXVM4RLiUUfVWNKEpFgimKzx</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/0SjbwKPJEilz-EUT1WoX2cb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Nineteen Eighty-Four OR 1984?" title="Nineteen Eighty-Four OR 1984?"> <h2>My new book is a Utopia in the form of a novel. I ballsed it up rather, partly owing to being so ill while I was writing it, but I think some of the ideas in it might interest you. We haven’t definitively fixed the title, but I think it will be called “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. George Orwell (4th February 1949)</h2>
An inquisitive student recently queried why the cover of their novel had the title, Nineteen Eighty-Four but the film adaptation they had viewed was 1984? Another held their edition of the book aloft to reveal a numeric title. Which was correct?
As recently as last month a new, <a href="https://www.spbooks.com/150-1984-9791095457114.html">exquisitely bound limited edition</a> of the only substantial manuscript to survive Orwell’s nomadic lifestyle was published with the numeric title, 1984: Manuscript. These drafts were originally published as Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript. Why the variation?
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-21804 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1984-Nineteen-Eighty-Four-george-orwell.jpg?resize=800%2C528&ssl=1" alt="Courtesy of SP Books" width="800" height="528" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1984-Nineteen-Eighty-Four-george-orwell.jpg?resize=800%2C528&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1984-Nineteen-Eighty-Four-george-orwell.jpg?resize=500%2C330&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1984-Nineteen-Eighty-Four-george-orwell.jpg?resize=768%2C507&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1984-Nineteen-Eighty-Four-george-orwell.jpg?w=1110&ssl=1 1110w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21917" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/facsimilie.jpg?resize=600%2C622&ssl=1" alt="" width="600" height="622" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/facsimilie.jpg?w=600&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/facsimilie.jpg?resize=482%2C500&ssl=1 482w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h3>Publishing History</h3>
The novel was originally published in Great Britain and the United States of America during 1949, six months prior to George Orwell’s premature death, aged 46. The title was Nineteen Eighty-Four. However, the iconic dust jacket designed by Michael Kennard for the genuine first edition of the novel published by Secker & Warburg on the 8th June (featured above), has both. Five days later the American edition from Harcourt & Brace was published, no numerals, just Nineteen Eighty-Four on the dust jacket. Countless editions, in many languages, have been published subsequently with either the alphabetic or numeric title, almost never with both on the cover.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-22098" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="600" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_8747-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
The Book-of-the-Month Club edition was published the following month and if you have a copy no longer housed in a dust jacket, it is barely distinguishable from the earlier American edition. There is only a very slight difference on the copyright page and oddly, a small black dot at the bottom right of the back cover. The inside front and back flaps of the dust jacket do clearly identify it as a Book-of-the-Month Club edition.
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The first American paperback was published by Signet in 1950 as 1984 (with a wonderfully dubious cover design endlessly recycled for foreign editions). In Great Britain, it was not until 1954 that Penguin released the novel in soft covers, as Nineteen Eighty-Four.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22149 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Signet.jpeg?resize=468%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="468" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Signet.jpeg?resize=468%2C800&ssl=1 468w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Signet.jpeg?resize=292%2C500&ssl=1 292w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Signet.jpeg?w=594&ssl=1 594w" sizes="(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
By the end of 1950, editions in Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian and Swedish were available. Translators and publishers overwhelmingly chose “1984” (except the Germans and Swedes) rather than the alphabetic script. This pattern has continued to the present day with few exceptions in these editions that are in languages other than English.
There are now countless paperback editions of the novel in English and apparently no rhyme or reason for the choice of numeric or alphabetic title.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-22150" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=1170%2C781&ssl=1" alt="" width="1170" height="781" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=500%2C334&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=800%2C534&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=1536%2C1025&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984-macro-small-7.webp?resize=2048%2C1366&ssl=1 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<h3>How did Orwell want the title to be written? </h3>
In the summer of 1945 Orwell commenced drafting Nineteen Eighty-Four and completed it in December 1948. However, the genesis of the novel dated from 1943 (or possibly early 1944). His literary notebook contained <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-orwells-notes-for-nineteen-eighty-four">several pages of ideas</a> for “The Last Man in Europe” including concepts that were to be at the heart of the novel: “Newspeak”; “the proles”; “ingsoc” and “party slogans (War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery)”; and, “The Two Minutes Hate”.
Orwell’s correspondence with his agent, publishers and friends from the time he completed the first draft of the novel, in early November 1947, until the book was printed provides a clear record of his ambivalence about the title. The first mention of Nineteen Eighty-Four is in a letter to his literary agent, Leonard Moore, on the 22nd October, 1948:
<blockquote>“I have almost finished the novel and shall have it ready for typing early in November, so it should be all finished by the time I promised, ie. beginning of December. It is extremely long, I should say 100,000 or even 125,000 words. I have not definitely decided on the title. I am inclined to call it either NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR or THE LAST MAN IN EUROPE, but I might just possibly think of something else in the next week or two.”</blockquote>
For five years the projected titled had been The Last Man in Europe and one wonders if the novel would have been phenomenally successful if that had ended-up gracing the cover.
Orwell’s drafts reveal why this new title came so late in the piece. The novel was originally set in 1980 and over the years of writing, he changed it to 1982 and then finally, 1984. The <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/09/19/a-tribute-to-professor-peter-davison/">late Professor Peter Davison</a> doubted that the title was the year the book was finished, 1948, reversed to be 1984, as often suggested:
<blockquote>“It is arguable that, in setting the novel in, successively, 1980, 1982, and 1984, Orwell was projecting forward his own age, 36, when World War II started, from the time when he was planning or actually writing the novel. Thus, 1944 + 36 = 1980; 1946 + 36 = 1982; 1948 + 36 = 1984. It is not, perhaps, a coincidence that in 1944, when the idea for the novel might reasonably be said to be taking shape, Richard was adopted. It would be natural for Orwell to wonder at that time (as many people did) what prospects there would be for war or peace when their children grew up. By choosing Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell set his novel in both present and future. Had Orwell only been writing about the present, there would have been no need for him to have advanced the year beyond 1980, and preserving the interval he did – of 36 years – must have had significance for him. Inverting the final digits of 1980 and 1982 would have been meaningless; the inversion of those for 1984 was probably coincidental.”</blockquote>
On the 17th January 1949 Orwell wrote to Moore making it clear that he was not concerned about the title:
<blockquote>“I am glad the new book is fixed up for the USA. I assume it does no harm for it to have a different title here & there. Warburg seems to prefer the title “1984”, & I think I prefer it slightly myself. But I think it would be better to write it “Nineteen Eighty-four,” but I expect to see Warburg shortly & I’ll talk to him about that.”</blockquote>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-22144 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984first.jpg?resize=533%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="533" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984first.jpg?resize=533%2C800&ssl=1 533w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984first.jpg?resize=333%2C500&ssl=1 333w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984first.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1984first.jpg?w=1024&ssl=1 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
On the 22nd January 1949 he told Moore:
<blockquote>“I am glad Harcourt Brace seem to be pleased with “1984.” I have had a talk with Warburg, who prefers this title and is inclined to agree with me that it would be better to write the number NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR rather than put the figure. As I said before, I doubt whether it hurts a book to be published under different names in Britain and the USA—certainly it is often done—and I would like Harcourt Brace to follow their own wishes in the matter of the title.”</blockquote>
Even as late as 4th February 1949, Orwell wrote to his friend, Julian Symons, explaining that “We haven’t definitively fixed the title, but I think it will be called “Nineteen Eighty-four”.
Only a few days later, on the 8th February, Harcourt and Brace sent Orwell the manuscript to proof. The die was cast.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
Close examination of <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/03/07/22/">textual issues</a> in the publication history of such a culturally significant novel as Nineteen Eighty-Four has occupied scholars for close to three-quarters-of-a-century. There are some particularly <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2020/03/07/22/">delicious ironies</a> to be savoured, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/04/18/orwell-newspeak-esperanto/">interesting influences </a>and <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/07/23/orwells-rats/">life experiences</a> that fuelled the author’s creativity. The title of the novel itself led to a flurry of interest as the year 1984 approached and this fascination has continued, to the surprise of some, showing no signs of abating.
With more than a little irony, considering Orwell’s concerns about technology evident in the novel, I asked the artificial intelligence tool <a href="https://chat.openai.com/chat">ChatGPT</a> the question, which is the correct title for George Orwell’s novel, “1984” or “Nineteen Eighty-Four”? The response provides a pretty reasonable summary:
<blockquote>The correct title for George Orwell’s novel is “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” This is the full and official title of the book. It is often shortened to “1984” for convenience, but the correct title is “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” </blockquote>
I then used <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aggregator">an aggregator</a> to see what decisions contemporary publishers are making for the cover of the novel. It is overwhelmingly the case that editions published in the last two years are titled, 1984. You can verify this using <a href="https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?full=on&ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=3R,YSYLCgjL0aWHi83LznZdDxyg_1672391965_1:3:2">Bookfinder.</a>
REFERENCES
Davison, Peter (ed.), George Orwell: A Life in Letters, Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
Davison, Peter (ed.), The Lost Orwell: Being a Supplement to the Complete Works of George Orwell, Timewell Press, 2006
Fenwick, Gillian, George Orwell: a Bibliography, Winchester: Oak Knoll Press & St. Paul’s Bibliographies, 1998
Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Secker and Warburg, 8 June 1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949 (Book-of-the-Month Club edition)
1984, New York: Signet, 1950 (#798)
Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Penguin, 1954
Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript, London: Secker & Warburg, 1984 (edited by Peter Davison)
<a href="https://www.spbooks.com/150-1984-9791095457114.html">1984: Manuscript</a>, Cambremer: SP Books, 2022 (introduction by DJ Taylor)
Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 9, London: Secker & Warburg, 1997
Two Wasted Years: 1943, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 15, Secker & Warburg, 1998
Smothered Under Journalism: 1946, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 18, Secker & Warburg, 1998
I Belong to the Left: 1945, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 17, London: Secker & Warburg, 1998
Smothered Under Journalism: 1946, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 18, London: Secker & Warburg, 1998
It Is What I Think: 1947–1948, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 19, London: Secker & Warburg, 1998
Our Job Is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949–1950, The Complete Works of George Orwell – Volume 20, London: Secker & Warburg, 1998
Taylor, D.J., On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography of George Orwell’s Masterpiece, ABRAMS Press, 2019
FEATURED IMAGE: courtesy of Quintessential Rare Books
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<pubDate>Fri, 30 Dec 2022 13:09:07 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Review: Orwell and Empire by Douglas Kerr]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXVxm8K5yT_Xmy3FFO_xyF25</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/G4tOg-2nZZovI-pdW9lew8b1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Review: Orwell and Empire by Douglas Kerr" title="Review: Orwell and Empire by Douglas Kerr"> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/orwell-and-empire-9780192864093?cc=us&lang=en&">Orwell and Empire</a> 
Douglas Kerr 
Oxford University Press, 2022, pp 240 
ISBN: 978 0 192 86409 3
<blockquote>Once there was a British writer, an Englishman who was born in India. He was privately educated in England, did not go to university, returned to the East after leaving school, and lived and worked there for a handful of years. Empire, and the relation between those in authority and those under authority, became one of the principal themes of his writing, both in journalism and fiction (p. 152).</blockquote>
In his excellent new book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Kerr">Douglas Kerr </a>convincingly argues that empire was central to George Orwell’s cultural identity and that colonial life shaped the writer he became. Kerr’s ideas – first explored in his earlier, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/george-orwell-9780746309728?cc=us&lang=en&">concise work on the writer</a>, about the ‘familiar pattern’ of Orwell’s ‘journey to the East’ for one born into ‘a family of the military and imperial class’ – have been developed considerably. By allowing ‘Orwell to speak for himself’ of ‘the East’ and focusing on the oft-neglected historical/cultural context in which he wrote, Kerr offers new insights into an ‘eastward-facing Orwell, poised between the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian_people">Anglo-Indian</a> Rudyard Kipling and the Indo-Anglian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulk_Raj_Anand">Mulk Raj Anand</a>’ (p. 17).
The introduction, a masterclass in synthesis and originality, employs irony and motifs from Orwell’s work to bring the ‘strong oriental subtext’ that ‘ran like the great seams of coal’ through British life, into focus:
<blockquote>The national beverage of the British, consumed in stately homes and in the shelters of the homeless, and celebrated in a characteristic essay by George Orwell called ‘A nice cup of tea’, is brewed from the leaves of a plant that cannot be cultivated in Europe, but grows on the hillsides of India and China. Tea was not the only quintessentially English thing, important to Orwell, that was not English at all. The aspidistra, that hardy and inelegant plant once so common in English middle-class homes that Orwell made it a comic symbol of respectability in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, is also a botanical immigrant from the East. In English country gardens, oriental rhododendrons and camellias and peonies flourished under their assumed European names (p. 1).</blockquote>
Orwell, despite his enthusiasm for English cookery, beer, pubs, gardening and a nice cup of tea is shown to be ‘a lifelong immigrant’ of sorts, ‘reporting on England, like Kipling, as on a foreign land’ (p. 8).
Kerr’s ideas are structured into thematic and largely freestanding chapters: Animals, Environment, Burmese Days, Class, Empire, Geography, Women, Race, Police, The Law, and Literature. He compellingly challenges conventional narratives and tropes throughout and does not baulk at discussing Orwell’s limitations – especially on race, women and as a novelist. His commentary on Kipling and Orwell, the ‘twinned heraldic animals, the lion and the unicorn of modern British literature’, is particularly insightful (p. 152). Usually viewed through the prism of their differences as writers, Kerr’s list of similarities the men share includes that they were both:
<ul>
<li>Anglo-Indians and Asian by birth;</li>
<li>patriots but highly critical of their government and the citizenry;</li>
<li>public intellectuals interested in raising the political consciousness of the nation;</li>
<li>enamoured with nature and the English countryside, loved (and anthropomorphised) animals;</li>
<li>men of principle but pragmatic about change;</li>
<li>impatient with orthodoxy, theory and hypocrisy (pp 152-153).</li>
</ul>
Kerr details the lifelong intellectual quarrel Orwell had with Kipling, whom he ‘worshipped’ at thirteen when at prep school, ‘loathed’ at seventeen while a sixth-former at Eton, ‘enjoyed’ at twenty serving as a police officer in Burma, ‘despised’ at twenty-five while living a bohemian existence in Paris and was to rather ‘admire’ again by 1936, as a struggling professional author with three published novels (p. 155). Kerr sees Orwell’s ambivalence as evidence of paradoxical feelings towards both empire and his Anglo-Indian heritage. Considering the influence of Kipling on Orwell’s work published in the period 1931-1936 – such as ‘A hanging’, ‘Shooting an elephant’ and especially Burmese Days, where the Englishmen, who lounge at the club, are clearly Kiplingesque characters ‘stripped of their glamour and charm’ – the struggle is evident (p. 154). Burmese Days is a powerful, although limited, indictment of empire but the protagonist, John Flory, an English timber merchant, certainly understands the ‘commercial motives’ that underpinned British imperialism in a way Kipling never did’ (p. 68).<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-16836" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BD.jpg?resize=487%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="487" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BD.jpg?resize=623%2C1024&ssl=1 623w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BD.jpg?resize=182%2C300&ssl=1 182w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BD.jpg?resize=768%2C1263&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BD.jpg?w=942&ssl=1 942w" sizes="(max-width: 487px) 100vw, 487px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said">Edward Said</a>’s analysis of European imperialism, in his seminal book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book)">Orientalism</a> (1978), explored ‘the East’ as an invention of the Western mind. Imaginative writers, such as Kipling, were the intellectual lifeblood of this invention. Kerr is surefooted explaining why the term ‘orientalism’ (in lowercase) is vexed terminology rightly associated ‘with mastery, selection, and prejudice’ and necessarily employed to foreground ‘the powerful oriental dimension’ in the work of Orwell who:
<blockquote>… struggled all his life, and not with complete success, to exorcise the Orientalism (in Said’s sense) which came with his Anglo-Indian patrimony. The argument is that this is absolutely formative to his intellectual and political development. Replacing Orwell in the Orient—and examining the Orient in Orwell—are central to the ambition of this book to rehistoricize him (p. 4).</blockquote>
Kerr works hard to achieve that, knowing that the Anglo-Indians have ‘disappeared from view as completely as the Elizabethan apprentice boys or the London Huguenots’ (p. 5).He explains that the Anglo-Indians ‘carried a geography, and a history, different from people who took their bearings unquestioningly from the Greenwich meridian’ (p. 6). As Orwell knew well, it was nearly impossible to escape from the class into which you were born.
Kerr is rightly unconvinced about theoretical claims that suggest Orwell is a ‘post-colonial writer’ pointing out that the great anti-imperialist does not seem to have developed friendships with indigenous people in Burma (which may be understandable as was an imperial policeman) nor in London during the war (p. 75). Orwell was always sceptical about the realpolitik of a successful Burmese democracy (p. 8). Burmese Days makes little attempt to explore the private life of the local people and is most notable for descriptive passages of the country’s natural environment. Kerr notes that U Po Kyin, the villain of the novel, was the name of the only Indigenous face in the famous photograph taken at the Police Training School at Mandalay in 1923 (p. 125).
<figure id="attachment_21433" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21433" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-21433" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=800%2C553&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="553" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=800%2C553&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=500%2C345&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=768%2C531&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=1536%2C1061&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?resize=2048%2C1415&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image001.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21433" class="wp-caption-text">Mandalay, Burma, 1923</figcaption></figure>
Orwell, the Anglo-Indian, had, indeed, internalised a geography different from those whose bearings were taken from the Greenwich meridian. Re-reading Homage to Catalonia (on completing Kerr’s book), I noted that Orwell’s memories of the war in Spain are represented through the geographical prism of the sub-continent. He arrives back in Barcelona on the train, after several months at the front, which reminds him of an experience more than a decade earlier:
<blockquote>From Mandalay, in Upper Burma, you can travel by train to Maymyo, the principal hill station of the province, on the edge of the Shan plateau. It is rather a queer experience. You start off in the typical atmosphere of an eastern city – the scorching sunlight, the dusty palms, the smells of fish and spices and garlic, the squashy tropical fruits, the swarming dark-faced human beings – and because you are so used to it you carry this atmosphere intact, so to speak, in your railway carriage. Mentally you are still in Mandalay when the train stops at Maymyo, four thousand feet above sea level. But in stepping out of the carriage you step into a different hemisphere. Suddenly you are breathing cool sweet air that might be that of England, and all round you are green grass, bracken, fir trees, and hill-women with pink cheeks selling baskets of strawberries. Getting back to Barcelona, after three and a half months at the front, reminded me of this. There was the same abrupt and startling change of atmosphere (Orwell 1998 [1938]: 87).</blockquote>
Britain’s empire was never far from Orwell’s consciousness. His plan to return to India, to work on a newspaper in Lucknow just before the Second World War, never reached fruition. Two subsequent, ‘wasted’ years at the BBC as a talks assistant, then as the producer broadcasting propaganda into the sub-continent is explored (albeit briefly) in several chapters. Kerr’s commentary on Mulk Raj Anand insightfully unpacks Orwell’s complex relationship to the politics of empire during this time at the BBC:
<blockquote>Anand was an anti-imperialist, a socialist, and an Indian nationalist. This was tricky for Orwell, who was highly suspicious of nationalism. But he defended Anand from charges of being anti-British and unfriendly to Anglo-Indians in his writing. He was impatient with Anand’s politics for the same reason that he disapproved of Congress agitation for Indian independence from Britain while the imperial Japanese army was storming through Asia. But as a literary figure, Orwell had no doubt about Anand’s value and importance (p. 165).</blockquote>
<figure id="attachment_21443" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21443" style="width: 229px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-21443" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Mulk_Raj_Anand_2.jpeg?resize=229%2C315&ssl=1" alt="" width="229" height="315" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21443" class="wp-caption-text">Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004)</figcaption></figure>
Anand believed Anglo-Indians were often out of touch with their own countrymen, as well as the sub-continent (p. 6). Orwell was very surprised that independence came so quickly after the end of the war for the Indian and Burmese people and Kerr notes that Orwell, wrestling with his illness and Nineteen Eighty-Four on Jura, wrote nothing about it (p. 166). The recent discovery of letters, written to David Astor from Paris in 1945, do reveal Orwell’s strong desire to return to Burma as a war correspondent to ‘report the closing stages of the campaign and interview some of the political leaders’. This fact, unknown to Kerr on publication, further strengthens his thesis about the centrality of the sub-continent to Orwell’s cultural, professional and imaginative identity. Kerr concludes by mentioning that Orwell, returning to ‘the Anglo-Indian world of his youth’, was working on a new short story, A Smoking-Room Story, when he died (p. 167).
Scholarly and readable, Douglas Kerr’s convincing new book is an essential one for those interested in Orwell, imperialism and the legacy of empire. It is also worth returning to his earlier book (2003) to see the development of Kerr’s thinking about Orwell and ‘the East’.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21437" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kerr.jpeg?resize=342%2C550&ssl=1" alt="" width="342" height="550" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kerr.jpeg?w=342&ssl=1 342w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/kerr.jpeg?resize=311%2C500&ssl=1 311w" sizes="(max-width: 342px) 100vw, 342px" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Highly recommended. You can <a href="https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=OcHnW,32WzqOcZ64.CiD99xwO5s_1664006540_1:1:1&bq=author%3Ddouglas%2520kerr%26title%3Dorwell%2520and%2520empire">buy a copy here</a>.
REFERENCES
Keeble, Richard Lance (2022) Letters from Paris throw new insights on Orwell, George Orwell Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2 pp 3-7
Kerr, Douglas (2003) George Orwell (Writers and Their Work), Tavistock, Devon: Northcote House Publishers Ltd
Orwell, George (1998 [1938]) Homage to Catalonia, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. VI, London: Secker & Warburg
Orwell, George (1923) The Police Mess, Burma, N.P. Print.
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 Sep 2022 10:29:52 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[A Tribute to Professor Peter Davison]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXWF0PiPfcy0kLDXWBZfdr71</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/pLG677Fbm8nQ8Omcr5bux8b1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="A Tribute to Professor Peter Davison" title="A Tribute to Professor Peter Davison"> <h3> “It would be dishonest of me not to feel pleasure and, indeed, pride, when I see the twenty volumes of The Complete Works and the facsimile of the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four on my shelves.”
 Peter Davison (1926-2022) </h3>
The late <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Davison_(literary_scholar)">Professor Peter Hobley Davison’s </a>academic labour enriched my life. I had embarked on <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/orwells-fiction-and-non-fiction/">The Complete Works of George Orwell</a>, the twenty-volumes he edited, in order read the writer’s work in chronological order. It became a source of fascination, obsession really, an intellectual adventure of the highest order which contextually transformed my understanding of Orwell and fuelled my own independent research.
Peter was already very elderly when I contacted him about my research with a link to my <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/">Orwell collection</a>. He politely responded (about five-minutes after I dispatched the email) with the enthusiasm of a bibliophile, saying he was “amazed” at my “wonderful, wonderful library”. For the next few years we emailed and discussed Orwell’s life and work. Even though he was frail, saddened by the loss of his wife, Sheila, and other friends, his intellectual curiosity and generosity of spirit would not be submerged. He provided feedback on papers and articles, “printing” them off to read “closely”.
I often told friends and colleagues of this remarkable man and thought it highly improbable my own powers of the intellect, as limited as they might be, would have anything like the longevity that Professor Davison had managed. D.J. Taylor, <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/04/peter-davison-orwell-scholar-obituary">in his obituary for Peter</a>, understandably described him as a “a one-man Orwell industry”.
A Life in Letters and Diaries, published by the Folio Society in 2017, was his thirty-first and final volume devoted to the work of George Orwell. The first, Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript, had been published in 1984. Peter was often self-effacing and philosophical in our correspondence but clearly felt a sense of fulfilment knowing how many readers benefited from his scholarship. He once said to me:
 “It really does cheer me that people enjoy and appreciate the edition. I can think of so much I could do better now — but that is life, well, it’s brevity.“
<h1>The Road to Orwell</h1>
Even though my interest was in Orwell, Peter’s own life and intellectual achievement increasingly became a great source of inspiration, especially when I truly began to understand that his own road to such a phenomenal scholarship was a circuitous one. This further enhanced my respect and appreciation of his intellectual achievement. The more I understood, the more it became evident that the journey he had taken thoroughly prepared him for a task the monumental task he was to undertake.
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/orwells-fiction-and-non-fiction/davison-folio-society/'><img width="477" height="500" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/davison-folio-society.webp?fit=477%2C500&ssl=1" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/davison-folio-society.webp?w=1392&ssl=1 1392w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/davison-folio-society.webp?resize=477%2C500&ssl=1 477w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/davison-folio-society.webp?resize=764%2C800&ssl=1 764w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/davison-folio-society.webp?resize=768%2C804&ssl=1 768w" sizes="(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px" /></a>
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Peter left school at 15, during the Second World War, to work in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Film_Unit">Crown Film Unit </a>before joining the navy on turning 18. After the war, he <a href="https://orwellsociety.com/orwell-and-film/">returned to the film industry</a> but was sacked by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer">MGM</a>, along with 600 other employees and needed to find alternative employment quickly. Sheila encouraged Peter to apply for a position as a magazine editor, at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fowler_%26_Co.">John Fowler & Co</a>, for which he was unqualified. He gained the position and commenced his career as the editor for Railways and the in-house magazine, Ink. Peter gained skills which would be invaluable to his future academic career. In particular, a highly-skilled compositor taught him the art of typesetting.
<figure id="attachment_21178" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21178" style="width: 548px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-21178 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=548%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="548" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=548%2C800&ssl=1 548w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=342%2C500&ssl=1 342w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=768%2C1122&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=1051%2C1536&ssl=1 1051w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?resize=1402%2C2048&ssl=1 1402w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Navy-1.jpeg?w=1584&ssl=1 1584w" sizes="(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21178" class="wp-caption-text">In the navy</figcaption></figure>
Realising he was only “superficially qualified” for any job, Peter commenced a program of formal education. Sheila, who was a teacher, paid for her husband to take an intensive 10-day latin course at University College London. He successfully completed A Levels in English, Latin and History. This resulted in better-paid employment. Between 1952-1960, Peter worked as the Assistant Secretary and Overseas Liaison Officer to the International Wool Secretariat. During this period he sought a degree in English Literature and studied a wide-range of subjects, including Anglo-Saxon and Middle English, European Drama (1850-1950) and Literary Criticism. John Davison recently told me that his father:
 “… reached the Secretariat in Lower Regent Street at about 7.00–7.15 am and could study in peace and quiet in the warmth. for a couple of hours. On the train back home to Burnt Oak he learnt 
 Anglo-Saxon vocabulary and studied the set texts – Beowulf, of course, and a wide range of poetry and prose. He continued to study each evening for a couple of hours and then each weekend.”
<figure id="attachment_21177" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21177" style="width: 592px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-21177 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1.jpeg?resize=592%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="592" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=592%2C800&ssl=1 592w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=370%2C500&ssl=1 370w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1038&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1137%2C1536&ssl=1 1137w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1516%2C2048&ssl=1 1516w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PS-wedding-1-scaled.jpeg?w=1895&ssl=1 1895w" sizes="(max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21177" class="wp-caption-text">Peter and Shelia married on a snowy day in 1949</figcaption></figure>
Peter continued his studies, taking an MA in Bibliography and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeography">Palaeography</a>, at London University College. The skills he developed in deciphering, reading, and dating manuscripts would prove invaluable and lead to further career opportunities. He commenced his PhD, diligently deciphering Elizabethan manuscripts, while continuing to work at the Secretariat. In early 1960, Peter called in at the Marlborough Arms where, as expected, he met his supervisor who then unexpectedly asked if he would be interested in an appointment at Sydney University to teach what the department there called ‘Scholarship’ but was what he regarded as “Bibliography & Palaeography”. He accepted.
<h1>The University of Sydney</h1>
Peter told me that he was drafting “a longish piece” outlining his life for his children. He mentioned that his wife had written a memoir up until their marriage (which everyone had loved when excerpts were read at her memorial service). Peter shared drafts of his memoirs as he wrote them and it was only then that I realised his connection to Australia. He related some amusing anecdotes about his time in the antipodes and I discovered he had gained a PhD in English literature (Modern Drama), the first awarded by the University of Sydney, in 1963.
<figure id="attachment_21032" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21032" style="width: 634px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-21032" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=634%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="634" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=634%2C800&ssl=1 634w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=396%2C500&ssl=1 396w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=768%2C969&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=1217%2C1536&ssl=1 1217w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?resize=1623%2C2048&ssl=1 1623w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PHD-1963.jpeg?w=1844&ssl=1 1844w" sizes="(max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21032" class="wp-caption-text">Peter Davison with two of his sons in 1963</figcaption></figure>
When he arrived in Sydney, Peter was expecting to have three months to settle-in and prepare lectures for an introductory course on drama he was to teach. To his “astonishment” it was expected he commence lecturing for that ‘Scholarship’ course in just four days’ time:
 “Had I realised how formidable that class would be — amongst its number were Germaine Greer and Clive James, both far more intellectually distinguished than their alleged teacher – I might have like, their intended teacher, Philip Gaskell, turned tail and shipped the family back to England. But I agreed and I cobbled together what I could and started teaching as proposed.”
As Peter, who studied by correspondence, had never given or even attended a university lecture, it was suggested he “secrete” himself at the back of a theatre and observe one on poetry which should “provide adequate training”. I flippantly suggested that Greer and James skipped most lectures anyway to write inflammatory articles for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honi_Soit">Honi Soit</a> to which he replied:
 “I must leap to their defence. They attended well. I did act — well, say a few lines — with Germaine and James asked me to show him a set at Albany when I was Secretary. I did remind him he still owed me an essay! It went down quite well.”
Peter told me he still corresponded with a lifelong friend from this period, Professor John Bernard (1926-2020), a linguist and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/81653280/The_Macquarie_Dictionary_its_History_and_its_Editorial_Practices">seminal figure in the publication</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macquarie_Dictionary">Macquarie Dictionary</a>. J.R.L. Bernard, who went on to become a general editor of the dictionary, wrote a detailed account of the pronunciation of Australian English in a prefatory essay for the first edition, published in 1981. This was the same year that Peter was to first become involved in the intellectual endeavour which was to occupy him for the rest of his life.
<figure id="attachment_21179" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21179" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-21179" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1.jpeg?resize=800%2C529&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="529" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=800%2C529&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=500%2C330&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C508&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1015&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1353&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-working-1-scaled.jpeg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21179" class="wp-caption-text">Peter c. 1975</figcaption></figure>
<h1>The Complete Works of George Orwell (CWGO)</h1>
In September 1981, Peter was approached by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Rosenthal_(publisher)">Tom Rosenthal</a>, of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvill_Secker#Secker_&_Warburg">Secker & Warburg</a>, about editing new editions of Orwell’s books. Little did he realise at the time the many challenges, scholarly and financial, that he would face. John Davison, his son, puts it nicely:
 “It was not meant to be a big task, just a tidying up of previous editions. But, as you know, it didn’t turn out like that.”
<figure id="attachment_21193" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21193" style="width: 598px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-21193" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?resize=598%2C800&ssl=1" alt="" width="598" height="800" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?resize=598%2C800&ssl=1 598w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?resize=374%2C500&ssl=1 374w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?resize=768%2C1028&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?resize=1148%2C1536&ssl=1 1148w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-17-at-4.00.46-pm.png?w=1176&ssl=1 1176w" sizes="(max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px" data-recalc-dims="1" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-21193" class="wp-caption-text">Editing Orwell: Eight Problems</figcaption></figure>
Peter laboured for seventeen years editing, assisted by Sheila Davison and Ian Angus, <a style="font-size: revert; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.darcymoore.net/orwell-collection/orwells-fiction-and-non-fiction/">The Complete Works of George Orwell</a>. His attention to detail and eschewment of financial recompense for his hard work, culminated in the publication of the twenty-volume edition, acknowledged by all as a magisterial work of scholarship, in August 1998.
It is significant, if one is to understand what lay at the core of Peter Davison’s success as an editor and scholar, to know that Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript was the first work on Orwell he completed. Peter <a href="https://orwellsociety.com/peter-davison-3-meetings-with-remarkable-minds/">explained </a>that his “ability to transcribe and elucidate the texts in their much over-written Elizabethan hands was what convinced the then owner of the manuscript drafts of Nineteen Eighty-Four, <a href="https://library.brown.edu/exhibits/archive/orwell/siegel.html">Daniel G. Siegel</a>, that [he] could be trusted to transcribe them for publication in 1984”.
Even with this success, there were still challenges. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carey_(critic)">John Carey</a>, in a review of what was effectively the 21st volume in the CWGO, The Lost Orwell (2006), wrote that “admiration for Orwell quickly forms a bond between perfect strangers, assuring them of each other’s inner decency, and it is to this fellowship of loyal Orwellians that Peter Davison’s new book owes its existence”. Secker & Warburg, the original publishers of Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949, although paying handsome sums to celebrities for the rights to publish their experiences in the tv series Big Brother, could not afford to publish Davison’s book. A letter in my possession, found in an inscribed copy of The Lost Orwell, Peter acknowledges to his friends, “John & Margaret”, the help of another Orwellian, David Taylor, in helping him find a publisher, Timewell Press.
<h1>Vale Professor Davison</h1>
<h3> “When I think of my father it is not really as an Orwell scholar, but as a Shakespeare scholar with interests in Music Hall, bibliography and palaeography. Of course, I actually think of him, first and foremost, as a father and family man.” 
 John Davison</h3>
Peter Davison MA, PhD, D. Litt, Hon. D. Arts died on the 16th August.
Professor Davison will be remembered, by most readers, for his work on George Orwell but was justifiably proud of his many years teaching scholarly editing and that the Shakespearean editions he prepared, especially Henry IV, stayed so continuously in print. It was only recently I realised that he prepared a critical edition of music-hall songs over half-a-century ago.
<a href="https://orwellsociety.com/">The Orwell Society</a>, recently highlighted a quote (in a tweet sent with a link to Professor Davison’s obituary) which suggests my own personal experience of Peter, towards the end of his life, was exactly how others found him:
 “A kind, effusive and unassuming man, he was much esteemed by other Orwellians for his readiness to offer help and encouragement.”
There are many anecdotes of his intellectual and personal generosity. Dione Venables explained earlier this year, when I visited her, her heartfelt appreciation of Peter’s support when she was endeavouring to found The Orwell Society.
The last correspondence I received from Peter was on the 7th June while I was staying in Shropshire, at Ticklerton. He told me his eyesight was failing and that writing was near impossible but, as per usual, now 95 years of age, he had responded, indefatigable as ever, almost straight away to my email.
Peter’s funeral will be held at St George’s Church, Marlborough on Wednesday 21st September. Donations, in stead of flowers, to <a href="https://www.prospect-hospice.net/your-prospect/donate/donate-form/">Prospect Hospice</a>.
<h1><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-21298" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-Davison-service-1.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1" alt="" width="800" height="600" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-Davison-service-1.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-Davison-service-1.jpg?resize=500%2C375&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-Davison-service-1.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Peter-Davison-service-1.jpg?w=1176&ssl=1 1176w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-recalc-dims="1" /></h1>
<h3>I greatly appreciate John Davison’s assistance in answering my questions, providing photographs and generously sharing memories of his father. Thank you!</h3>
<h1>References</h1>
Butler, S. (2012) <a href="https://www.academia.edu/81653280/The_Macquarie_Dictionary_its_History_and_its_Editorial_Practices">‘The Macquarie Dictionary, its History and its Editorial Practices’</a>, Lexikos
Carey, John, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/insights-into-a-life-of-genius-rnkn3n57pdh">‘Insights into a life of genius’</a>, The Sunday Times, 28 May, 2006
Davison, John, Email correspondence (August-September), 2022
Davison, Peter, Memoirs: shared via email correspondence, 2018
Davison, Peter, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/library/article-abstract/s6-VI/3/217/991602?redirectedFrom=fulltext">‘Editing Orwell: Eight Problems’</a>, The Library, Volume s6-VI, Issue 3, September 1984, pp. 217–228.
Davison, Peter, <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/53594-the-troubled-history-behind-george-orwell-s-complete-works.html">‘The Troubled History Behind George Orwell’s Complete Works’,</a> The Publisher’s Weekly, 17 August, 2012
Orwell, George (1998) The Complete Works of George Orwell, edited by Peter Davison, London: Secker & Warburg
Orwell, George (2006) The Lost Orwell: Being a Supplement to the Complete Works of George Orwell, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Timewell Press
Taylor, D.J., ‘<a href="http://Peter Davison obituary" data-wplink-url-error="true">Peter Davison obituary’</a>, The Guardian, 4 September, 2022
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<pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2022 12:17:44 +0200</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Orwell’s Rats]]></title>
<link>https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/MnQ0CIv4CXXsdvchsbR58oeLGixeGJZp</link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-loaded/v1/j9O95hcFCN7fZsgqh5wRisb1naedg1wr" border=0 width="1" height="1" alt="Orwell’s Rats" title="Orwell’s Rats"> <h3 style="text-align: left;">‘The rat,’ said O’Brien, still addressing his invisible audience, ‘although a rodent is carnivorous. You are aware of that. You will have heard of the things that happen in the poor quarters of this town. In some streets a woman dare not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes. The rats are certain to attack it. Within quite a small time they will strip it to the bones. They also attack sick or dying people. They show astonishing intelligence in knowing when a human being is helpless.’ George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four</h3>
Why is George Orwell’s work so infested with rats? His books, correspondence, diaries and essays detail this obsession – which intensified as he aged. Few readers of his last novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a>, ever forget <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministries_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Room_101">Room 101</a>, deep inside the ironically named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministries_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Ministry_of_Love">Ministry of Love</a>, where political prisoners endure ‘the worst thing in the world’. For Orwell’s protagonist, Winston, this happened to be rats:
There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. It seemed to reach Winston from far away. The rats were fighting; they were trying to get at each other through the partition. He heard also a deep groan of despair. That, too, seemed to come from outside himself.
O’Brien picked up the cage, and, as he did so, pressed something in it. There was a sharp click. Winston made a frantic effort to tear himself loose from the chair. It was hopeless; every part of him, even his head, was held immovably. O’Brien moved the cage nearer. It was less than a metre from Winston’s face.
‘I have pressed the first lever,’ said O’Brien. ‘You understand the construction of this cage. The mask will fit over your head, leaving no exit. When I press this other lever, the door of the cage will slide up. These starving brutes will shoot out of it like bullets. Have you ever seen a rat leap through the air? They will leap onto your face and bore straight into it. Sometimes they attack the eyes first. Sometimes they burrow through the cheeks and devour the tongue.’
The cage was nearer; it was closing in. Winston heard a succession of shrill cries which appeared to be occurring in the air above his head. But he fought furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with a split second left – to think was the only hope.
Suddenly the foul musty odour of the brutes struck his nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside him, and he almost lost consciousness. Everything had gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an idea. There was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats.
The circle of the mask was large enough now to shut out the vision of anything else. The wire door was a couple of hand-spans from his face. The rats knew what was coming now. One of them was leaping up and down, the other, an old scaly grandfather of the sewers, stood up, with his pink hands against the bars, and fiercely sniffed the air. Winston could see the whiskers and the yellow teeth. Again the black panic took hold of him. He was blind, helpless, mindless.
‘It was a common punishment in Imperial China,’ said O’Brien as didactically as ever.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=20054" rel="attachment wp-att-20054"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-20054" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/1984first.jpeg?resize=300%2C446&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="446" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
Even prior to publication in 1949, Orwell’s vivid prose deeply affected those involved in the production of the novel. Orwell’s typist, Miranda Wood, found it hard to get “the rat torture scene” out of her mind even after the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four was dispatched to the publisher, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvill_Secker">Secker & Warburg</a>. 
Frederic Warburg wrote a report on that manuscript noting that it was one of the “most terrifying books” he has ever read and that Orwell had given “full rein to his sadism and its attendant masochism, rising (or falling) to the limits of expression in the scene where Winston, threatened by hungry rats which will eat into his face…”.
Many viewers of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(British_TV_programme)#:~:text=Nineteen%20Eighty%2DFour%20is%20a,BBC%20Television%20in%20December%201954.">controversial BBC television adaptation</a> of the novel in 1954 had the same horrified reaction as Wood and Warburg and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Radford">Michael Radford</a>, in his extremely successful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(1984_film)">film adaptation</a>, conveyed the horror of Winston’s torture to a new generation.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UmAVyowgDVE?controls=0" width="660" height="400" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h1>Orwell’s rat obsession</h1>
The taxi driver said something in a reassuring tone, & after somebody had looked out of an upper window, the door opened & an enormously fat man came out, carrying a lantern in his hand. The lantern showed a bedraggled dead rat lying on the doorstep, & shone dimly upon the man’s huge belly, for he was half naked, & his great pockmarked face… from a very early draft of Burmese Days (1934)
D.J. Taylor has explored <a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/articles/d-j-taylor-orwell-and-the-rats/">Orwell’s ‘rat obsession’</a> more thoroughly than other biographers noting, in <a href="https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/on-nineteen-eighty-four_9781419738005/">On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography</a>, that it is such a fixture of his printed work “that he can often seem like a kind of literary pied piper dancing at the head of an unappeasable furry brood that winds on from one book to the next”.
It is worth looking into the nooks and crannies of Orwell’s less well-known writing to explore this interest in rats further. In a letter written to his friend Prosper Buddicom, in 1921 while a teenager, Orwell explained his approach to killing rats:
My dear Prosper,
Thanks for your letter. It was most awfully good your shooting the two snipe & the woodcock. You ought to get at least one of them stuffed, I think.
I have bought one of those big cage-rat traps. This place is over-run with rats. It is rather good sport to catch a rat, & then let it out & shoot at it as it runs. If it gets away I think one ought to let it go & not chase it. If they are threshing the corn while you are there, I should advise you to go,—it is well worth it. The rats come out in dozens. It is also rather sport to go at night to a corn-stack with an acetylene bycicle (sic) lamp, & you can dazzle the rats that are running along the side & whack at them,—or shoot them with a rifle. I rather wish I had my rifle here, as there are no rabbits.
Au revoir, please give my regards (or whatever it is,) to your aunt & uncle & everyone.
Yours Eric.
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Orwell’s diaries are filled with pithy comments regarding rats that most people would not bother to record. Catching a rat in a trap is usually worth diarising it seems. He has limited success poisoning rodents and finds an “almost fossilised” one in the rubbish. Rats are possibly the culprits eating the eggs from his chicken coop. Always a close observer of nature, Orwell expresses surprise “they bred so late in the year” is impressed that “a barn owl destroys between 1,000 and 2,000 rats and mice in a year”.
In one entry, written just prior to the outbreak of WWII, Orwell notes the “rat population of G. Britain estimated at 4–5 million”. We can see his research data being employed in Nineteen Eighty-Four: ‘Rats!’ murmured Winston. ‘In this room’. ‘They’re all over the place,’ said Julia indifferently as she lay down again. ‘We’ve even got them in the kitchen at the hostel. Some parts of London are swarming with them. Did you know they attack children? Yes, they do. In some streets a woman daren’t leave her baby alone for two minutes. It’s the great huge brown ones that do it. And the nasty thing is that the brutes always—’ ‘Don’t go on!’ said Winston, with his eyes tightly shut.
While living at Barnhill, on the Isle of Jura where he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell noted in his diary (12th June 1947): Saw the buzzard carrying a rat or something about that size in its claws. The first time I have seen one of these birds with prey. Five rats (2 young ones, 2 enormous) caught in the byre during about the last fortnight. These rats seem to let themselves be caught very easily. The traps are simply set in the runs, unbaited & almost unconcealed. Also no precautions taken about handling them. I hear that recently two children at Ardlussa were bitten by rats (in the face, as usual).
Orwell is particularly obsessed with babies being menaced by rats. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels">Gulliver’s Travels</a>, a book that he held in the highest esteem (“If I had to make a list of six books which were to be preserved when all others were destroyed, I would certainly put Gulliver’s Travels among them”) and read from his boyhood til the last years of his life (see <a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-vs-literature-an-examination-of-gullivers-travels/">Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels</a>) has an episode that is particularly pertinent to his own childhood experience (discussed later in this post):

The bed was eight yards from the floor. Some natural necessities required me to get down; I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have been in vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to my face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend myself. These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both sides, and one of them held his fore-feet at my collar; but I had the good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief. He fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade, made his escape, but not without one good wound on the back, which I gave him as he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him. After this exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my breath and loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it.
 
Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody, ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and making other signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of tongs, and throw it out of the window. Then she set me on a table, where I showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of my coat, returned it to the scabbard 
<figure id="attachment_20044" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20044" style="width: 602px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/?attachment_id=20044" rel="attachment wp-att-20044"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-20044 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gullivers_travels.jpeg?resize=602%2C500&ssl=1" alt="" width="602" height="500" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gullivers_travels.jpeg?w=602&ssl=1 602w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gullivers_travels.jpeg?resize=500%2C415&ssl=1 500w" sizes="(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-20044" class="wp-caption-text">Gulliver’s Travels (1726)</figcaption></figure>
Orwell could not escape rats in comics any more than in life or his writing. In <a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/boys-weeklies/">Boys’ Weeklies</a>, his ground-breaking essay on popular culture, he describes the cover illustrations:
On one a cowboy is clinging by his toes to the wing of an aeroplane in mid-air and shooting down another aeroplane with his revolver. On another a Chinese is swimming for his life down a sewer with a swarm of ravenous-looking rats swimming after him. On another an engineer is lighting a stick of dynamite while a steel robot feels for him with its claws. On another a man in airman’s costume is fighting barehanded against a rat somewhat larger than a donkey.
Orwell is rarely anything less than a contradictory, paradoxical figure. In 1948, he replied from his hospital bed in Hairmyres Hospital to a letter from Celia Kirwan with the most remarkable and surprisingly counter-intuitive rodent image from his time in Paris during the 1920s one could conceivably imagine:
How I wish I were with you in Paris, now that spring is there. Do you ever go to the Jardin des Plantes? I used to love it, though there was really nothing of interest except the rats, which at one time overran it & were so tame that they would almost eat out of your hand. In the end they got to be such a nuisance that they introduced cats & more or less wiped them out.
Sadly, Orwell was allergic to an <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2019/06/09/orwells-streptomycin/">experimental tuberculosis drug</a> that would have saved his life. Around the same time he wrote to Kirwan, Orwell explained to another friend, employing another striking image, his plight:
I am a lot better, but I had a bad fortnight with the secondary effects of the streptomycin. I suppose with all these drugs it’s rather a case of sinking the ship to get rid of the rats.
He must have liked the turn of phrase, as he was still using it following year in correspondence:
If necessary I can have another go of streptomycin, which certainly seemed to improve me last time, but the secondary effects are so unpleasant that it’s a bit like sinking the ship to drown the rats.
<h2 id="block-a1814366-205b-4c66-b4f5-cffda547d923" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block is-selected wp-block-heading rich-text" tabindex="0" role="document" contenteditable="true" aria-multiline="true" aria-label="Block: Heading" data-block="a1814366-205b-4c66-b4f5-cffda547d923" data-type="core/heading" data-title="Heading">Why rats?</h2>
Why was Orwell so obsessed with rats? What was the root cause (if any) of his revulsion and why did rodents occupy his thoughts and fuel his creative energy so vividly? 
<a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/">Orwell’s parents</a> met in India and married during 1897. Their only son was born in 1903 in Motihari, where Richard Blair, <a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2018/11/17/orwell-smoke-opium-burma/">his father, was stationed</a>. However, Orwell was not to stay long on the sub-continent.
It was completely routine for the children of the officials working in the Indian Civil Service to return to be schooled in England while the men remained at their posts. Ida Blair, his mother, fled India with her two children sometime in 1904. A pressing public health issue and disturbing event in her home had hastened this departure.
The district was being ravaged by plague (Bowker). Since 1896, India had experienced two decades of high death rates from this disease but low monsoonal rains and the cooler temperatures in the north of Bihar, where Orwell’s family were stationed, made the rapid spread inevitable (Klein/Rogers). 
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/eric-blair-with-ayah/'><img width="1776" height="2542" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?fit=1776%2C2542&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?w=1776&ssl=1 1776w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=349%2C500&ssl=1 349w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=559%2C800&ssl=1 559w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=768%2C1099&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=1073%2C1536&ssl=1 1073w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Eric-Blair-with-Ayah.jpeg?resize=1431%2C2048&ssl=1 1431w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
<a href='https://www.darcymoore.net/2022/06/05/george-orwells-parents/ida-with-eric/'><img width="1774" height="2560" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?fit=1774%2C2560&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?w=1774&ssl=1 1774w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=346%2C500&ssl=1 346w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=554%2C800&ssl=1 554w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1108&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=1064%2C1536&ssl=1 1064w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ida-with-Eric-scaled.jpeg?resize=1419%2C2048&ssl=1 1419w" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" /></a>
The family had been living in one of the three colonial bungalows, at the European edge of the town, known as ‘Miscourt’ (an amalgam of ‘mess’ and ‘court’) overlooking the fields (Harding) when an incident that would horrify any parent occurred. 
Orwell, sleeping in his cot, was bitten on the leg by a rat (Venables). Understandably, this horrifying incident hastened his mother’s departure with her children to England. 
Prosper Buddicom enjoyed teasing Eric Blair about his fear of rats. Family diaries do reveal youthful conflict and rivalry between Prosper and Eric (Buddicom 1917). Eventually, in way of explanation, Eric revealed a tiny scar was on his leg.
Prosper’s sister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacintha_Buddicom">Jacintha Buddicom</a>, was cynical that a rat had caused the injury when told this by the young Orwell and felt he was exaggerating. Her younger sister, Guinever, believed him (Venables). 
This oral anecdote (discussed by both Guinever and Jacintha Buddicom multiple times with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dione_Venables">their cousin</a>) about the infant Orwell being bitten by a rat does make a great deal of sense considering Orwell’s life long obsession with killing rats and concerns about the vulnerability of babies. 
Generations of readers have asked the questions, did Orwell really shoot an elephant or witness a hanging in Burma? There has been considerable effort expended attempting to find autobiographical evidence that these two events happened. This has never been definitively proven but it is generally accepted that the answer to both questions is – probably! 
Did Orwell tell his childhood friends the truth about being bitten by a rat?
Probably!
<figure id="attachment_18539" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18539" style="width: 559px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.darcymoore.net/2021/12/04/cini-the-beast/buddicoms1/" rel="attachment wp-att-18539"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-18539" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/buddicoms1.jpg?resize=559%2C631&ssl=1" alt="" width="559" height="631" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/buddicoms1.jpg?w=559&ssl=1 559w, https://i0.wp.com/www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/buddicoms1.jpg?resize=443%2C500&ssl=1 443w" sizes="(max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-18539" class="wp-caption-text">Prosper, Guinever and Eric</figcaption></figure>

Featured image:<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1879572-nineteen-eighty-four-1984"> ‘The Rat Cage’ </a>

REFERENCES
Bowker, Gordon (2004 [2003]) George Orwell, London: Abacus
Buddicom, Jacintha & Venables, Dione (2006) Eric and Us: The Postscript Edition, Finlay
Buddicom, Lilian (1917) Diary (unpublished)
Crick, Bernard (1992 [1980]) George Orwell: A Life, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, second edition
Davison, Peter (2013) George Orwell: A Life in Letters, Liveright
Harding, L. (2000) Shadows of Orwell’, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/jun/24/georgeorwell.classics [Accessed 23 July 2022].
Klein, I. (1988) ‘Plague, Policy and Popular Unrest in British India’, Modern Asian Studies, 22(4), 723–755. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/312523 [Accessed 23 July 2022].
Orwell, George (1997 [1949]) Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. 9, London: Secker & Warburg
Orwell, George (1998) A Kind of Compulsion (1903-1936), The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. 10, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Secker & Warburg
Orwell, George (1998) It Is What I Think: 1947–1948, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. 19, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Secker & Warburg
Orwell, George (1998) Our Job is to Make Life Worth Living (1949-1950), The Complete Works of George Orwell, Vol. 20, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Secker & Warburg
Rogers, L. (1928) ‘The Yearly Variations in Plague in India in Relation to Climate: Forecasting Epidemics’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character, 103(721), 42–72. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/81315 [Accessed 23 July 2022].
Taylor, D. J. (2004) Orwell – The Life, London: Vintage
Taylor, D.J. (2019) On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography, Harry N. Abrams. Kindle Edition.
Venables, Dione (2022) Interview, 9 July
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