Happy 112th Birthday George Orwell!

 

George Orwell is the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, journalist and critic who is best known for his works Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Born this day in 1903, George Orwell is ranked as one of the best British writers since 1945 (The Times, 2008), George Orwell lives on in popular culture with phrases such as ‘Big Brother,’ ‘Thought Police’ and ‘newspeak.’ His brilliant novels, particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four, have given rise to the term ‘Orwellian’ which is used to describe authoritarian or totalitarian social practices and is still a topic of academic debate.

To honour the birthday of a great novelist and political critic we encourage you to read his thought-provoking works found in our library here and to read more about his life and works in Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.