Editing George Orwell (section)

===Second World War and ''Animal Farm''===
[[File:George Orwell and Sir Stephen Spender (Marchmont Association).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Based in [[Lansdowne Terrace, London|Lansdowne Terrace]], [[Bloomsbury]], London, Orwell wrote for ''[[Horizon (British magazine)|Horizon]]'' magazine (co-founded by [[Stephen Spender]]) from 1940]]
At the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], Orwell's wife Eileen started working in the Censorship Department of the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] in central London, staying during the week with her family in [[Greenwich]]. Orwell submitted his name to the Central Register for war work, but nothing transpired. He returned to Wallington, and in late 1939 he wrote material for his first collection of essays, ''[[Inside the Whale and Other Essays|Inside the Whale]]''. For the next year he was occupied writing reviews for plays, films and books for ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', ''[[Time and Tide (magazine)|Time and Tide]]'' and ''New Adelphi''. On 29 March 1940 his long association with ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'' began<ref>''A Patriot After All, 1940–41'', p. xvii, 1998 Secker & Warburg</ref> with a review of a sergeant's account of [[Napoleon]]'s [[French invasion of Russia|retreat from Moscow]]. At the beginning of 1940, the first edition of Connolly's ''[[Horizon (British magazine)|Horizon]]'' appeared, and this provided a new outlet for Orwell's work and new literary contacts. In May the Orwells took lease of a flat in London at Dorset Chambers, Chagford Street, [[Marylebone]]. It was the time of the [[Dunkirk evacuation]], and the death in [[Flanders]] of Eileen's brother Laurence O'Shaughnessy caused her considerable grief and long-term depression.<ref>[https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:376589/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E004406%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier O'Shaughnessy, Laurence Frederick (1900–1940)].Royal College of Surgeons of England. Obituary</ref>

Orwell was declared "unfit for any kind of military service" by the Medical Board in June, but soon joined the [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/newsroom/orwell/story/0,,1048203,00.html|title=About George Orwell |website=theguardian.com|access-date=2 September 2017}}</ref> He shared [[Tom Wintringham]]'s socialist vision for the Home Guard as a revolutionary People's Militia. His lecture notes for instructing platoon members include advice on street fighting, field fortifications, and the use of [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]]. Sergeant Orwell recruited [[Fredric Warburg]] to his unit. During the [[Battle of Britain]] he spent weekends with Warburg and his new [[Zionist]] friend, [[T. R. Fyvel|Tosco Fyvel]], at Warburg's house at [[Twyford, Berkshire]]. At Wallington he worked on "[[England Your England]]" and in London wrote reviews for periodicals. Visiting Eileen's family in Greenwich brought him face-to-face with the effects of [[the Blitz|the German Blitz]] bombings. In 1940 he first worked for the [[BBC]] as a producer on their Indian Section, while the broadcaster and writer [[Venu Chitale]] was his secretary.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sutaria |first1=Sejal |title=Walking the Line: Venu Chitale |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/pioneering-women/venu-chitale/ |access-date=28 December 2023 |work=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722190155/https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/pioneering-women/venu-chitale/ |archive-date=22 July 2022 |language=en}}</ref> In mid-1940, Warburg, Fyvel and Orwell planned [[Searchlight Books]]. Eleven volumes eventually appeared, of which Orwell's ''[[The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius]]'', published in February 1941, was the first.<ref>''A Patriot After All'', p. xviii</ref>

Early in 1941 he began to write for the American ''[[Partisan Review]]'' which linked Orwell with the [[New York Intellectuals]] who were also anti-Stalinist,<ref>[[Frances Stonor Saunders]], ''[[Who Paid the Piper?]]'', p. 160</ref> and contributed to the Gollancz anthology ''The Betrayal of the Left'', written in the light of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. He applied unsuccessfully for a job at the [[Air Ministry]]. Meanwhile, he was still writing reviews of books and plays and met the novelist [[Anthony Powell]]. He took part in radio broadcasts for the Eastern Service of the BBC. In March the Orwells moved to a seventh-floor flat at Langford Court, [[St John's Wood]], while at Wallington Orwell was "[[Dig for Victory|digging for victory]]" by planting potatoes.

{{Blockquote|"One could not have a better example of the moral and emotional shallowness of our time, than the fact that we are now all more or less pro Stalin. This disgusting murderer is temporarily on our side, and so the purges, etc., are suddenly forgotten."|George Orwell, in his war-time diary, 3 July 1941<ref>''A Patriot After All 1940–1941'', p. 522</ref>}}

In August 1941, Orwell finally obtained "war work" when he was taken on full-time by the BBC's Eastern Service.<ref name="ind060416">{{cite news |last1=Walsh |first1=John |title=BBC proposes 8 ft tall bronze statue in honour of George Orwell |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/bbc-proposes-8ft-tall-bronze-statue-in-honour-of-george-orwell-a6971961.html |access-date=19 May 2020 |work=The Independent |date=6 April 2016}}</ref> He supervised cultural broadcasts to India, to counter propaganda from [[Nazi Germany]] designed to undermine imperial links.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Orwell|first=George |title=The War Broadcasts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Urb_nQEACAAJ |year=1987 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-018910-0}}</ref>

At the end of August he had a dinner with [[H. G. Wells]] which degenerated into a row because Wells had taken offence at observations Orwell made about him in a ''Horizon'' article. In October Orwell had a bout of bronchitis; the illness recurred frequently. [[David Astor]] was looking for a provocative contributor for ''[[The Observer]]'' Sunday newspaper, and invited Orwell to write for him; the first article appeared in March 1942. In early 1942 Eileen changed jobs to work at the [[Minister of Food (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Food]], and in mid-1942 the Orwells moved to a larger flat, 10a Mortimer Crescent in [[Maida Vale]]/[[Kilburn, London|Kilburn]].<ref>Crick (1982), pp. 432–433</ref>

[[File:George-orwell-BBC.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|Orwell spoke on many [[BBC]] and other broadcasts, but no recordings are known to survive.<ref name="Bowker2013">{{cite book|author=Gordon Bowker|title=George Orwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT309|year= 2013|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-1405528054|pages=309–310}}</ref><ref name="Recordings Capture Writers' Voices Off The Page Listen Queue">{{cite news|title=Recordings Capture Writers' Voices Off The Page Listen Queue|newspaper = NPR.org|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96030704|publisher=NPR|access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref><ref name="BBC tried to take George Orwell off air because of 'unattractive' voice">{{Cite news|last1=Khan|first1=Urmeen|title=BBC tried to take George Orwell off air because of 'unattractive' voice|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5445579/BBC-tried-to-take-George-Orwell-off-air-because-of-unattractive-voice.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5445579/BBC-tried-to-take-George-Orwell-off-air-because-of-unattractive-voice.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|website=Daily Telegraph|access-date=5 November 2016|quote=The BBC tried to take the author George Orwell off air because his voice was "unattractive", according to archive documents released by the corporation...no recording of Orwell's voice survives but contemporaries—such as the artist Lucian Freud—have described it as "monotonous" with "no power".|date=4 June 2009}}{{cbignore}}</ref>]]
At the BBC, Orwell introduced ''Voice'', a literary programme for his Indian broadcasts, and by now was leading an active social life with literary friends, particularly on the political left. Late in 1942 he started writing regularly for the left-wing weekly ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]''<ref>Rodden (1989)</ref>{{RP|306}}<ref>Crick (1982)</ref>{{RP|441}} directed by [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MPs [[Aneurin Bevan]] and [[George Strauss]]. In March 1943, Orwell's mother died, and around this time he told Moore he was starting work on a book, which turned out to be ''[[Animal Farm]]''.

In September 1943, Orwell resigned from the BBC<ref name="Crick-LBC">{{cite book|last=Crick|first=Bernard R.|title=George Orwell: A Life|url=https://archive.org/details/georgeorwelllife0000cric|url-access=registration|date=1980|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|location=Boston|isbn=978-0316161121}}</ref>{{RP|352}}  following a report confirming his fears that few Indians listened to the broadcasts,<ref>{{citation|url=http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Burmese_Days/english/e_mm_int|first=Malcolm |last=Muggeridge|title=Burmese Days ''(Introduction)''|publisher=[[Time Inc.]]|year=1962}} Muggeridge recalls that he asked Orwell if such broadcasts were useful, "'Perhaps not', he said, somewhat crestfallen. He added, more cheerfully, that anyway, no one could pick up the broadcasts except on short-wave sets which cost about the equivalent of an Indian labourer's earnings over 10 years"</ref> but he was also keen to concentrate on writing ''Animal Farm''. On 24 November 1943, six days before his last day of service, his adaptation of the [[fairy tale]], [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''[[The Emperor's New Clothes]]'' was broadcast. It was a genre in which he was greatly interested and which appeared on ''Animal Farm''{{'}}s title page.<ref>''Two Wasted Years'', 1943, p. xxi, Secker & Warburg, 2001</ref> He resigned from the Home Guard on medical grounds.<ref>''I Have Tried to Tell the Truth'', p. xv. Secker & Warburg, 2001</ref>

In November 1943, Orwell was appointed literary editor at ''Tribune'', where his assistant was his friend [[Jon Kimche]]. Orwell was on the staff until early 1945, writing over 80 book reviews,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRHBGAAACAAJ |author1=Orwell, G. |author2=Davison, P. |title=I Have Tried to Tell the Truth |publisher=Secker & Warburg |location=London |year=1999 |isbn=978-0436203701 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and on 3 December 1943 started his regular personal column "[[As I Please]]".<ref>''I Have Tried to Tell the Truth'', p. xxix</ref> He was still writing reviews for other magazines, including ''Partisan Review'', ''Horizon'', and the New York ''[[The Nation|Nation]]''. By April 1944 ''Animal Farm'' was ready for publication. Gollancz refused to publish it, considering it an attack on the [[Politics of the Soviet Union|regime of the Soviet Union]], a crucial ally in the war. A similar fate was met from other publishers, including [[T. S. Eliot]] at [[Faber & Faber]], until [[Jonathan Cape]] agreed to take it.

Orwell and Eileen wanted children, but he was sterile and she may also have been infertile due to uterine cancer.<ref name=son/> In May the Orwells had the opportunity to adopt a child, thanks to the contacts of Eileen's sister-in-law Gwen O'Shaughnessy,<ref name=taylor>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/10/georgeorwell.classics |title=Another piece of the puzzle |newspaper=The Guardian |last=Taylor |first=DJ|authorlink=D. J. Taylor (writer)|date=10 December 2005}}</ref> then a doctor in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]. In June a [[V-1 flying bomb]] struck Mortimer Crescent and the Orwells had to find somewhere else to live. Orwell had to scrabble around in the rubble for his books, which he had finally managed to transfer from Wallington, carting them away in a wheelbarrow. Another blow was Cape's reversal of his plan to publish ''Animal Farm''. The decision followed his visit to [[Peter Smollett]], an official at the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]], who was later identified as a Soviet agent.<ref name="TGA">{{cite news |author=Garton Ash, Timothy |author-link=Timothy Garton Ash |title=Orwell's List |work=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=25 September 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071504/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/09/25/orwells-list/|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/09/25/orwells-list/|archive-date=5 March 2016|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="Caute2009">{{cite book |last=Caute |first=David |author-link=David Caute |title=Politics and the Novel during the Cold War |year=2009 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, NJ |isbn=978-1412811613 |page=79}}</ref>
The Orwells spent time in the North East, near [[Carlton, County Durham]], dealing with the adoption of a boy whom they named [[Richard Blair (patron)|Richard Horatio Blair]].<ref>"He had led a quiet life as Richard Blair, not 'Richard Orwell'": Shelden (1991: 398; 489)</ref> By September 1944 they had set up home in [[Islington]], at 27b [[Canonbury Square]].<ref>Orwell: Collected Works, I Have Tried to Tell the Truth, p. 283</ref> Baby Richard joined them there, and Eileen gave up her work at the Ministry of Food to look after her family. [[Secker & Warburg]] had agreed to publish ''Animal Farm'', planned for the following March, although it did not appear in print until August 1945. By February 1945 David Astor had invited Orwell to become a war correspondent for ''The Observer''. He went to liberated Paris, then to Germany and Austria, to cities including [[Cologne]] and [[Stuttgart]]. He was never in the front line, under fire, but followed the troops closely, "sometimes entering a captured town within a day of its fall while dead bodies lay in the streets."<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 October 2021 |title=Reporting from the Ruins |url=https://orwellsociety.com/reporting-from-the-ruins/ |access-date=1 March 2022 |website=The Orwell Society |language=en-GB}}</ref> Some of his reports were published in the ''[[Manchester Evening News]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vrs-EAAAQBAJ |title=Ruins: Orwell's Reports as War Correspondent in France, Germany and Austria from February until June 1945 |first=George |last=Orwell |date=2021 |publisher=Comino Verlag |via=Google Books |isbn = 978-3945831311 |access-date=19 September 2021}}</ref>

While he was there, Eileen went into hospital for a [[hysterectomy]]. She had not given Orwell much notice about the operation because of worries about the cost, and because she expected to make a speedy recovery; however she died on 29 March 1945 of an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic she was given.<ref name=son>{{cite interview|interviewer=[[Simon Hattenstone]]| first=Richard|last=Blair| title=George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father |newspaper=The Guardian | date=19 March 2025 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/george-orwell-me-richard-blair-life-with-extraordinary-father}}</ref> It was expected that he would give up his nine-month-old adopted son, but he did not.<ref name=son/> Orwell returned home and then went back to Europe. He returned to London to cover the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]] at the beginning of July. ''[[Animal Farm|Animal Farm: A Fairy Story]]'' was published in Britain on 17 August 1945, and in America on 26 August 1946.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Harold |title=George Orwell's Animal Farm |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=128}}</ref>