A Life in Letters

by George Orwell

  August 1935: Moves to Kentish Town, London.

  23 January 1936: 'Rudyard Kipling', New English Weekly.

  31 January-30 March 1936: In North of England collecting material for The Road to Wigan Pier. Makes detour by Lake Rudyard following Kipling's death; stays in hostel overlooking the lake (see his Diary, 3-4 February 1936).

  2 April 1936: Moves to The Stores, Wallington, Hertfordshire.

  20 April 1936: Keep the Aspidistra Flying published by Gollancz.

  May 1936: Starts writing The Road to Wigan Pier; begins reviewing for Time and Tide.

  9 June 1936: Marries Eileen O'Shaughnessy.

  Autumn 1936: 'Shooting an Elephant', New Writing.

  November 1936: 'Bookshop Memories', Fortnightly.

  December 1936: Poem: 'A happy vicar I might have been', The Adelphi.

  15 December 1936: Delivers MS of The Road to Wigan Pier to Victor Gollancz.

  Christmas 1936: Leaves to fight for the Republicans in Spanish Civil War.

  January-June 1937: Serves with POUM Militia on the Aragon Front.

  8 March 1937: The Road to Wigan Pier published in trade and Left Book Club editions.

  c. 28 April-10 May 1937: On leave in Barcelona when Communists violently suppress POUM and other revolutionaries ('The May Events').

  20 May 1937: Wounded through the throat by a Fascist sniper at Huesca.

  23 June 1937: Escapes from Spain with Eileen, John McNair, and Stafford Cottman.

  1-7 July 1937: Arrives back in Wallington and begins writing Homage to Catalonia.

  July 1937: New Statesman and Nation refuses to publish Orwell's article on the POUM or his review of Borkenau's Spanish Cockpit.

  13 July 1937: Report to Tribunal for Espionage and High Treason, Valencia, charging the Orwells as 'rabid Trotskyists' and agents of the POUM. In the ensuing trial, October-November 1938, his friend Jordi Arquer, was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

  29 July and 2 September 1937: 'Spilling the Spanish Beans', New English Weekly.

  August 1937: 'Eye-Witness in Barcelona', Controversy.

  5 August 1937: Addresses ILP Conference, Letchworth, Herts, on his experiences in Spain.

  12 November 1937: Invited to join The Pioneer, Lucknow.

  Mid-January 1938: Completes Homage to Catalonia.

  8 March 1938: Ill with tubercular lesion in one lung and so forced to abandon Pioneer offer.

  15 March-1 September 1938: Patient at Preston Hall Sanatorium, Aylesford, Kent.

  25 April 1938: Homage to Catalonia published by Secker & Warburg after rejection by Gollancz.

  June 1938: Joins the Independent Labour Party.

  24 June 1938: 'Why I Join the I.L.P.', New Leader.

  2 September 1938-26 March 1939: On 2 September the Orwells left Tilbury on board the P&O liner SS Stratheden bound for Gibraltar. They arrived in Morocco on 11 September. On 26 March 1939 they left Casablanca on board the NYK liner, SS Yasukunimaru homeward bound. For details of their stay (mainly near Marrakech) see his Domestic and Morocco diaries (Orwell: Diaries, 2009). Whilst there he wrote Coming Up for Air.

  30 September 1938: Munich Agreement signed; Chamberlain returns to London waving the notorious piece of paper assuring 'peace in our time'.

  December 1938: 'Political Reflections on the Crisis', The Adelphi.

  11 April 1939: Back in Wallington.

  May-December 1939: Writes Inside the Whale and Other Essays.

  12 June 1939: Coming Up for Air published by Gollancz.

  28 June 1939: Orwell's father dies of cancer aged 82. Orwell was at his bedside.

  24-31 August 1939: Stays with L.H. Myers in Hampshire. Orwell never knew that Myers had, through an intermediary, Dorothy Plowman, paid for his and Eileen's stay in Morocco. Orwell believed he had been loaned PS300.

  September 1939: 'Democracy in the British Army', Left Forum.

  1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland.

  3 September 1939: UK and France declare war on Germany. Shortly thereafter, Orwell leaves the Independent Labour Party because of its opposition to the war.

  Christmas 1939: 'Marrakech', New Writing.

  February 1940: Orwell makes his first contribution to Horizon ('Lessons of War', a review).

  March 1940: 'Boys' Weeklies', Horizon.

  1 March 1940: Inside the Whale and Other Essays published by Gollancz.

  29 March 1940: Orwell makes his first contribution to Tribune.

  April 1940: Projects long novel in three parts (probably not started).

  May 1940: Joins the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard) as platoon commander.

  18 May 1940: First of 25 theatre reviews for Time & Tide (until 9 August 1941).

  25 May 1940: Lecture on Dickens to the Dickens Fellowship.

  June 1940: Eileen's dearly-loved brother, Laurence O'Shaughnessy, a Major in the RAMC, killed in Flanders tending the wounded during the retreat to Dunkirk. According to Lydia Jackson (pen-name Elisaveta Fen), Eileen's 'grasp on life loosened considerably' thereafter.

  August-October 1940: Writes The Lion and the Unicorn.

  17 August 1940: 'Books in General' (on Charles Reade), New Statesman.

  Autumn 1940: 'My Country Right or Left', Folios of New Writing.

  5 October 1940: First of 27 film reviews for Time & Tide (until 23 August 1941).

  December 1940: 'The Ruling Class', Horizon.

  6 December 1940: BBC broadcast (with Desmond Hawkins): 'The Proletarian Writer'.

  20 December 1940: 'The Home Guard and You', Tribune.

  January 1941: 'Our Opportunity', Left News (see 3 March 1941 on page 497).

  3 January 1941: Writes 'London Letter', first of 15, Partisan Review (published March/April 1941).

  19 February 1941: The Lion and the Unicorn published by Secker & Warburg, the first of the'Searchlight Books' edited by Orwell and T. R. Fyvel.

  3 March 1941: 'Fascism and Democracy' and 'Patriots and Revolutionaries (= 'Our Opportunity') as chapters 8 and 10 of Betrayal of the Left, published by Gollancz.

  Early April 1941: They move to St John's Wood, London.

  23 May 1941: 'Literature and Totalitarianism', Oxford University Democratic Socialist Club.

  May-June 1941: Series of four talks broadcast by BBC Overseas Service published in The Listener as 'Frontiers of Art and Propaganda', 29 May 1941; 'Tolstoy and Shakespeare', 5 June 1941; 'The Meaning of a Poem', 12 June 1941; and 'Literature and Totalitarianism', 19 June 1941.

  August 1941: 'Wells, Hitler, and the World State', Horizon.

  17 August 1941: 'London Letter', Partisan Review.

  18 August 1941: Joins the BBC Eastern Service Indian section as Talks Assistant.

  18 August 1941-24 November 1943: Talks Assistant, later Talks Producer, Indian Section, BBC Eastern Service.

  September 1941: 'The Art of Donald McGill', Horizon.

  21 November 1941: First of Orwell's weekly newsletters for broadcast to India and S.E. Asia. He wrote 104 or 105 to be broadcast in English and 115 or 116 for translation into Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, or Hindustani. Of those in English, most were broadcast to India, 30 to Malaya, and 19 to Indonesia. Orwell only read his scripts from 21 November 1942.

  22 November 1941: Talk: 'Culture and Democracy', Fabian Society.

  1 January 1942: 'London Letter', Partisan Review.

  8 January 1942: Radio talk: 'Paper is Precious'. (Radio talks are for the BBC's Eastern Service.) 15 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 1942: Radio talk: 'The Meaning of Sabotage'.

  February 1942: 'Rudyard Kipling', Horizon.

  8 March 1942: First contribution to Observer.

  10 March 1942: 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 1942: '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 1943: 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 1943: '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 1943: 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 1943-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.

  17 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 1944) 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 1944: '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 1945: '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 1945: '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 1945: 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 1945: 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.

  29 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 1945: '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 1945: '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.

  October 1945: 'Notes on Nationalism', Polemic.

  8 October 1945: Forces Educational Broadcast: 'Jack London', BBC Light Programme.

  14 October 1945: 'Profile: Aneurin Bevan'; anon., chiefly by Orwell, Observer.

  19 October 1945: 'You and the Atom Bomb', Tribune.

  26 October 1945: 'What is Science?', Tribune.

  November 1945: 'The British General Election', Commentary.

  2 November 1945: 'Good Bad Books', Tribune.

  9 November 1945: 'Revenge is Sour', Tribune.

  23 November 1945: 'Through a Glass Rosily', Tribune.

  14 December 1945: 'The Sporting Spirit', Tribune.

  15 December 1945: 'In Defence of English Cooking', Evening Standard.

  21 December 1945: 'Nonsense Poetry', Tribune.

  January 1946: 'The Prevention of Literature', Polemic.

  4 January 1946: 'Freedom v. Happiness' (review of Zamyatin's We), Tribune.

  12 January 1946: 'A Nice Cup of Tea', Evening Standard.

  18 January 1946: 'The Politics of Starvation', Tribune.

  24, 31 January, 7, 14 February 1946: Four related articles: '1: The Intellectual Revolt'; '2. What is Socialism?'; '3. The Christian Reformers'; '4. Pacifism and Progress', Manchester Evening News.

  1 February 1946: 'The Cost of Radio Programmes', Tribune.

  8 February 1946: 'Books v. Cigarettes', Tribune.

  9 February 1946: 'The Moon under Water' (the ideal pub), Evening Standard.

  14 February 1946: Critical Essays published by Secker & Warburg (as Dickens, Dali and Others: Studies in Popular Culture, by Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 29 April 1946).

  15 February 1946: 'Decline of the English Murder', Tribune.

  8 March 1946: 'Do Our Colonies Pay?', Tribune.

  29 March 1946: Radio Play: 'The Voyage of the Beagle', BBC Home Service.

  29 March 1946: 'British Cookery', unpublished British Council booklet (XVIII, 2954 201-13).

  April 1946: 'Politics and the English Language', Horizon.

  12 April 1946: 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad', Tribune.

  26 April 1946: 'A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray', Tribune.

  Mid-April 1946: Gives up journalism for six months to concentrate on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

  May 1946: 'Second Thoughts on James Burnham', Politics.

  3 May 1946: Death of Marjorie Dakin, Orwell's elder sister.

  3 May 1946: 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', Tribune.

  Early May 1946: Last 'London Letter', Partisan Review.

  23 May-13 October 1946: Rents Barnhill on Jura.

  Summer 1946: 'Why I Write', Gangrel.

  9 July 1946: Radio Play: 'Little Red Riding Hood', BBC Children's Hour.

  14 August 1946: 'The True Pattern of H.G. Wells', Manchester Evening News.