Orwell

One of the most enduringly popular and controversial writers of the twentieth century, George Orwell’s work is as relevant today as it was in his own lifetime. Possibly, in the age of Brexit and populism, even more so. He foresaw ‘Fake News’ in Nineteen Eighty Four’s ‘Doublethink’, the creation of the EU and predicted that post-Imperial xenophobia would cause Britain to leave it. Separate from his career as a political theorist and novelist, Orwell’s life is fascinating in its own right. Disillusioned with his family’s upper middle-class complacency, Orwell grew to despise the class system that spawned him, despite being unable to fully detach from it. In truth, he reserved as much suspicion and distaste for the ‘proles’ as he did pity. Orwell: A Man of Our Time offers a vivid portrait of the man behind the writings, placing both him and his work at the centre of the current political landscape.

This authoritative and informative study is a fascinating examination of his life and ideas.

Richard Bradford is Research Professor in English at Ulster University and Visiting Professor at the University of Avignon. He has published over twenty-five acclaimed books, including a biography of Philip Larkin, which was an Independent Book of the Year, the authorised biography of Alan Sillitoe, a life of Kingsley Amis and a biography of Kingsley’s son, Martin. The Man Who Wasn't There, his account of Hemingway’s life, is a ‘bombshell biography’ according to The Sunday Times. Most recently, he has delved into the troubled life of Patricia Highsmith in Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires.He has written for The Spectator and The Sunday Times and has been interviewed on his work for various BBC Radio Arts Programmes, as well as appearing on the Channel 4 Series ‘Writers in their Own Words’. His compilation of Philip Larkin’s best amateur photographs in The Importance of Elsewhere has inspired a BBC TV programme.