D.J. Taylor s book about the British writing legend is a tour de force of documentary evidence combined with decades of thinking about every facet of the author who fascinates him .
Ann Kronbergs
Published:
12:50 PM May 10, 2021
George Orwell in Wallington in 1939 with one of his and Eileen s goats
- Credit: UCL Library, Special Collections, Orwell Archive 2D21
The little village of Wallington in North Hertfordshire appears, on a first visit, to have remained relatively untouched by time in the 85 years since George Orwell lived here. It was here he found inspiration for many of the settings and characters in his iconic novel
Animal Farm, first published in 1945.
A small sign saying Manor Farm can be seen on the roadside wall of the Great Barn, a large black timber-framed structure almost visible from the cottage on Kitt’s Lane where Orwell, real name Eric Blair, lived between 1936 and 1940 with his wife Eileen. The writer probably had the lofty interior of the barn in mind for the scene in the novel where Old Major, the prize middle white boar, shares his vision of Animalism with the assembled creatures, encouraging them to believe in a n