Editing George Orwell (section)

===Hampstead===

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| image2            = George Orwell in Hampstead - geograph.org.uk - 432863.jpg
| caption1          = Orwell's former home at 77 Parliament Hill, [[Hampstead]], London
| caption2          = His time as a bookseller is marked with this plaque in [[Pond Street, Hampstead|Pond Street]], Hampstead.
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This job was as a part-time assistant in Booklovers' Corner, a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead run by Francis and Myfanwy Westrope, who were friends of Nellie Limouzin in the [[Esperanto]] movement. The Westropes were friendly and provided him with comfortable accommodation at Warwick Mansions, [[Pond Street, Hampstead|Pond Street]]. He was sharing the job with [[Jon Kimche]], who also lived with the Westropes. Blair worked at the shop in the afternoons and had his mornings free to write and his evenings free to socialise. These experiences provided background for the novel ''[[Keep the Aspidistra Flying]]'' (1936). As well as the various guests of the Westropes, he was able to enjoy the company of Richard Rees and the ''Adelphi'' writers and Mabel Fierz. The Westropes and Kimche were members of the [[Independent Labour Party]], although at this time Blair was not seriously politically active. He was writing for the ''Adelphi'' and preparing ''A Clergyman's Daughter'' and ''Burmese Days'' for publication.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=16}}</ref>

[[File:GEORGE ORWELL 1903-1950 Novelist and Political Essayist lived here.jpg|thumb|upright|[[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] in [[Kentish Town]], London, where Orwell lived from August 1935 until January 1936]]
At the beginning of 1935 he had to move out of Warwick Mansions, and Mabel Fierz found him a flat in Parliament Hill. ''A Clergyman's Daughter'' was published on 11 March 1935. In early 1935 Blair met his future wife [[Eileen O'Shaughnessy]], when his landlady, Rosalind Obermeyer, who was studying for a master's degree in psychology at [[University College London]], invited some of her fellow students to a party. One of these students, Elizaveta Fen, recalled Blair and his friend [[Sir Richard Rees, 2nd Baronet|Richard Rees]] "draped" at the fireplace, looking, she thought, "moth-eaten and prematurely aged."<ref>Stansky & Abrahams, ''Orwell:The Transformation'' pp.&nbsp;100–101</ref> Around this time, Blair had started to write reviews for ''[[The New English Weekly]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=17}}</ref>

In June, ''Burmese Days'' was published and Cyril Connolly's positive review in the ''New Statesman'' prompted Blair to re-establish contact with his old friend. In August, he moved into a flat, at 50 Lawford Road, [[Kentish Town]], which he shared with [[Michael Sayers]] and [[Rayner Heppenstall]]. The relationship was sometimes awkward and Blair and Heppenstall even came to blows, though they remained friends and later worked together on BBC broadcasts.<ref>A Kind of Compulsion, p. 392</ref> Blair was now working on ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'', and also tried unsuccessfully to write a serial for the ''[[News Chronicle]]''. By October 1935 his flatmates had moved out and he was struggling to pay the rent on his own. He remained until the end of January 1936, when he stopped working at Booklovers' Corner. In 1980, [[English Heritage]] honoured Orwell with a [[blue plaque]] at his Kentish Town residence.<ref>{{cite news |title=George Orwell's Blue Plaque in Kentish Town, London NW5 |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/george-orwell/ |access-date=27 February 2021 |agency=English Heritage}}</ref>