George Orwell: A Life in Letters (92 page)

1 January 1942
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

8 January 1942
: Radio talk: ‘Paper is Precious’. (Radio talks are for the BBC’s Eastern Service.)

1
5 January 1942
: Radio talk: ‘The Meaning of Scorched Earth’.

20 January 1942
: Radio talk: ‘Money and Guns’.

22 January 1942
: Radio talk: ‘Britain’s Rations and the Submarine War’.

29 January 1
942
: Radio talk: ‘The Meaning of Sabotage’.

February 1942
: ‘Rudyard Kipling’,
Horizon.

8 March 1942
: First contribution to
Observer
.

10 March 1
942
: Radio talk: ‘The Re-discovery of Europe’ (
The Listener
, 19.3.42).

8 May 1942
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

15 May 1942
: ‘Culture and Democracy’,
Victory or Vested Interest
, George Routledge & Sons.

Summer 1942
: They move to Maida Vale, London.

11 August 1
942
: ‘Voice 1’, first of six radio literary magazines for India.

29 August 1942
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

9 September 1942
: Lectures at Morley College, Lambeth.

9 October 1942
: Orwell writes first instalment of a story by five authors broadcast to India. Later instalments by L.A.G. Strong, Inez Holden, Martin Armstrong, and E.M. Forster.

2
November 1942
: Imaginary radio interview with Jonathan Swift (
The Listener
, 26.11.42).

29 November 1942
: ‘In the Darlan Country’,
Observer
.

3 January 1943
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

9 January 1943
: ‘Pamphlet Literature’,
New Statesman & Nation.

22 January 1943
: Radio talk: ‘George Bernard Shaw’.

23 February 1943
: First (anonymous) contribution to ‘Forum’ (on India),
Observer.

March 1943
: ‘Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War’ (written autumn 1942),
New Road.

5 March 1943
: Radio talk: ‘Jack London’.

19 March 1
943
: Ida Blair, Orwell’s mother, dies with Orwell at her bedside.

2 April 1943
: ‘Not Enough Money: A Sketch of George Gissing’,
Tribune.

9 May 1943
: ‘Three Years of Home Guard’,
Observer
.

c
. 23 May 1943
:
‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

4 June 1943
: ‘Literature and the Left’,
Tribune
.

13 June 1943
: Radio talk: ‘English Poetry since 1900’.

18 June 1943
: Verse: ‘As One Non-Combatant to Another: A Letter to “Obadiah Hornbrooke” [= Alex Comfort]’,
Tribune
.

11 August 1943
: Radio: featurised story:
Crainquebille
by Anatole France.

22 August 1
943
: ‘I am definitely leaving it [the BBC] probably in about three
months’.

September 1943
: Review: ‘Gandhi in Mayfair’,
Horizon
.

9 September 1943
: Radio play adapted from
The Fox
by Ignazio Silone.

6 October 1943
: Radio: featurised story: ‘A Slip Under the Microscope’ by H.G. Wells.

17 October 1943
: Radio talk:
Macbeth
.

18 November 1
943
: Radio dramatization:
The Emperor’s New Clothes
by Hans Christian Andersen.

18 November 1943
:
Talking to India
, Allen & Unwin, ed. and introduced by Orwell.

21 November 1943
: Radio talk:
Lady Windermere’s Fan
.

23 November 1943
: Leaves the BBC and joins
Tribune
as Literary Editor. Leaves Home Guard on medical grounds.

November
1
943–February 1944
: Writes
Animal Farm.

26 November 1943
: ‘Mark Twain – The Licensed Jester’,
Tribune.

2 December 1943
: Broadcast to USA, ‘Any Questions’ on Wigan Pier.

3 December 1943
: First of 80 personal columns entitled ‘As I Please’,
Tribune,
59 published to 16.2.45; remainder 8.11.46 to 4.4.47.

24 December 1943
: ‘Can Socialists be Happy?’ as by ‘John Freeman’,
Tribune.

15 January 1944
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

21 January 1944
: Poem: ‘Memories of the Blitz’,
Tribune.

13 February 1944
: ‘A Hundred Up’ (centenary of
Martin Chuzzlewit
],
Observer.

1
7 April 1944
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

May 1944
: Finishes
The English People
; published by Collins, August 1947.

14 May 1944
: The Orwells’ son (adopted June 1
944) born; christened Richard Horatio Blair.

Summer 1944
: Visits Jura and sees Barnhill.

‘Propaganda and Demotic Speech’,
Persuasion.

28 June 1944
: The Orwells’ flat bombed; move to Inez Holden’s flat near Baker St, London.

16 July 1944
: ‘The Eight Years of War: Spanish Memories’,
Observer.

24 July 1944
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

7 September 1944
: ‘How Long is a Short Story?’,
Manchester Evening News.

22 September 1944
: ‘Tobias Smollett: Scotland’s Best Novelist’,
Tribune.

October 1944
: ‘Raffles and Miss Blandish’,
Horizon.

Early October 1944
: They move to 27b Canonbury Square, Islington, London, N1.

October (?) 1944
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

19 October 1944
: ‘Home Guard Lessons for the Future’,
Horizon
.

October/November 1944
: ‘Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali’,
Saturday Book,
4. Orwell’s article is physically sliced out – though its title is still indexed.

22 December 1
944
: ‘Oysters and Brown Stout’ (on Thackeray),
Tribune
.

15 February–end March 1945
: War Correspondent for the
Observer
and
Manchester Evening News,
France, Germany, and Austria.

25 February 1
945
: ‘Paris Puts a Gay Face on her Miseries’,
Observer;
mentions visiting the rue de Pot de Fer where he lodged in 1928–29.

28 February 1945
: ‘Inside the Papers in Paris’,
Manchester Evening News
.

March 1945
: ‘Poetry and the Microphone’,
New Saxon Pamphlets
(written autumn 1943).

4 March 1945
: ‘Occupation’s Effect on French Outlook’,
Observer
.

7 March 1945
: ‘The Political Aims of the French Resistance’,
Manchester Evening News.

11 March 1
945
: ‘Clerical Party may Re-emerge in France: Educational Controversy’,
Observer
.

18 March 1945
: ‘De Gaulle Intends to Keep Indo-China: But French Apathetic on Empire’,
Observer.

20 March 1945
: ‘The French Believe we have had a Revolution’,
Manchester Evening News.

25 March 1
945
: Eileen Blair signs her Will.

25 March 1945
: ‘Creating Order out of Cologne Chaos: Water Supplied from Carts’,
Observer
.

29 March 1945
: Eileen Blair dies under anaesthetic. Orwell returns to England.

31 March 19
45
: Signs first of his ‘Notes for my Literary Executor’.

April 1945
: ‘Antisemitism in Britain’,
Contemporary Jewish Chronicle.

8 April–24 May 1945
: Returns to France, Germany and Austria as War Correspondent.

8 April 1945
: ‘Future of a Ruined Germany: Rural Slum Cannot Help Europe’,
Observer
.

15 April 1945
: ‘Allies Facing Food Crisis in Germany: Problem of Freed Workers’,
Observer
.

16 April 1945
: ‘The French Elections will be Influenced by the Fact that Women will have First Vote’,
Manchester Evening News.

22 April 1945
: ‘Bavarian Peasants Ignore the War: Germans Know They are Beaten’,
Observer.

2
9 April 1945
: ‘The Germans Still Doubt Our Unity: The Flags do not Help’,
Observer
.

4 May 1945
: ‘Now Germany Faces Hunger’,
Manchester Evening News
.

6 May 1945
: ‘France’s Interest in the War Dwindles: Back to Normal is the Aim’,
Observer.

8 May 1945
: VE Day: end of war in Europe.

13 May 1945
: ‘Freed Politicians Return to Paris: T.U. Leader sees de Gaulle’,
Observer
.

20 May 194
5
: ‘Danger of Separate Occupation Zones: Delaying Austria’s Recovery’,
Observer
.

27 May 1945
: ‘Obstacles to Joint Rule in Germany’,
Observer.

5 June 1945
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

8 June 1945
: Broadcast for Schools:
Erewhon
, BBC Home Service.

10 June 1945
: ‘Uncertain Fate of Displaced Persons’,
Observer
.

15 June 1945
: Broadcast for Schools:
The Way of All Flesh
, BBC Home Service.

24 June 1
945
: ‘Morrison and Bracken Face Stiff Fights: Heavy Poll Expected’,
Observer.

25 June 1945
: Warburg reports that Orwell has written ‘the first twelve pages of his new novel’. This would eventually become
Nineteen Eighty-Four
.

July 1945
: ‘In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse’,
Windmill
(written February 1945).

1 July 1945
: ‘Liberal Intervention Aids Labour’,
Observer.

5 July 1945
: ‘Authors Deserve a New Deal’,
Manchester Evening News.

21 July 1945
: ‘On Scientifiction’,
Leader Magazine.

28 July 1945
: ‘Funny but not Vulgar’,
Leader Magazine.

August 1945
: Elected Vice-Chairman of the Freedom Defence Committee.

15 August 1945
: VJ Day: end of war in Far East.

15–16 August
1945
: ‘London Letter’,
Partisan Review
.

17 August 1945
: 4,500 copies of
Animal Farm
published by Secker & Warburg.

10–22 September 1945
: Stays in fisherman’s cottage on Jura.