George Orwell: Author, Journalist and Critic

Orwell famously railed against totalitarianism and the abuse of absolute power, most notably through his critically acclaimed novels Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Here, we delve into the story of his life, exploring how his experiences shaped his opinions and writing.

A Child of the British Raj

Born Eric Blair on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, George Orwell spent his early years as a child of the British Raj, as his father served the British Empire by working as an Opium Agent in the Indian Civil Service.

Like many children of the time, Orwell was sent back to the United Kingdom for a traditional upbringing, one that he described as fitting in with the ‘lower-upper-middle classes’ and which was predominantly overseen by his mother. From a young age, he exhibited a level of intelligence and intellect that earned him a King’s Scholarship to Eton College in May 1917.

Following a Familial Path

Despite his intellectual capacity, George Orwell didn’t apply himself at Eton and ended up dropping out in December 1921. The following June, he joined the Indian Imperial Police and was accepted into its Burma (now known as Myanmar) division. Stating his reason for joining as having family there, coupled with his father’s attachment to the Eastern Empire, his posting was perhaps one of reluctance.

Not much is known about Orwell’s time in the East, although it did spawn the well-known essays ‘A Hanging’ and ‘Shooting an Elephant’, as well as his first novel Burmese Days (1934); the experience also engendered a deep cynicism towards imperialism.

A Vagrant Five Years

George Orwell’s return to the UK was precipitated by a medical certificate. There was no defined plan for his next venture and the next five years included teaching at private schools, masquerading as a tramp and living in Paris, an experience that inspired his first published work, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).

The book detailed Orwell’s personal experience of living in abject squalor and, before its publication, the writer chose a professional pseudonym that combined the name of the reigning British monarch and a local river. Several productive years followed, in which the writer battled a nasty bout of pneumonia, published two more novels and married his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

Formulating Political Viewpoints

George Orwell continued to investigate poverty first-hand, embarking on a tour of the industrial north that resulted in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). The second half of the book contains his unfavourable views on socialism, but it is salient to note that his political opinions were not yet fully formed.

The defining experience for Orwell, one that would inform the works that earned him global fame and recognition, was the six months he spent as a Republican volunteer in Spain in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Receiving a wound to the throat, the writer was lucky not to have been killed, as a bullet passed his carotid artery by mere millimetres. He recovered from the injury but his experience in Spain fuelled his repulsion of totalitarianism.

Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

Animal Farm (1945), one of Orwell’s best-known works, and indeed arguably one of the greatest literary pieces of the twentieth century, is a satire of the Soviet Revolution, in which the major figures of the regime are caricatured as farmyard animals. He wasn’t naïve in thinking the piece would be readily accepted by mainstream publishers, writing to a friend in 1944 that ‘it is so not O.K. politically that I don’t feel certain in advance that anyone will publish it.’

Four publishers rejected the manuscript, with one initially accepting it but changing their minds after consulting the Ministry of Information, until eventually Secker and Warburg published the first edition of the book in 1945. George Orwell had succeeded in publishing the unpublishable, writing in a proposed preface for the novel: ‘if liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’.

Big Brother is Watching You

Orwell’s final novel was 1984, an immediate international success that satirises totalitarian political systems and explores the corruption of power. It spawned several neologisms that have become part of mainstream modern language, such as ‘Big Brother’, ‘the thought police’, ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’, and is still taught on school curriculums to this day. 

Tragically, George Orwell couldn’t enjoy the immense success of 1984 as after completing the final draft in 1948, he was transported to a Cotswolds nursing home following a rapid deterioration of his health as a result of tuberculosis (TB). The novel was published in June 1949 and its author died at University College Hospital on 21 January 1950, just a few months later, at the age of 46. 

A Totalitarian Design

For the reverse of the UK £2 coin commemorating the life and work of George Orwell, experienced coinage artist Henry Gray has created a design based on the theme of totalitarianism, which is central to Orwell’s writing and an integral part of the artist’s design.

“With phones and cameras being everywhere in your house, and being listened to by advertisers on your phone, you are really aware of how you’re being surveyed – and that’s what 1984 is all about. It’s about living in a culture where everything is looked at and you are constantly under pressure to conform. That’s why the eye [in the design] isn’t a realistic eye; it doesn’t have eyelashes and things like that because I wanted it to be monocular. It’s almost like a camera lens staring at you all the time, unblinking.”

Henry Gray

The inscription ‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’, a quote taken from 1984, encircles the lens, whilst another quote from the novel, ‘THERE WAS TRUTH AND THERE WAS UNTRUTH’, serves as the coin’s fitting edge inscription.

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