George Orwell

An intellectual who did not like intellectuals, a socialist who did not trust the state, a liberal who was against free markets, a Protestant who believed in religion but not in God, a fierce opponent of nationalism who defined Englishness for a generation. Aside from being one of the greatest political essayists in the English language and author of two of the most famous books in twentieth century literature, George Orwell was a man of profound contradictions. George Orwell:English Rebel takes us through the many twists and turns of Orwell's life and thought, from precocious, public school satirist at Eton and imperial policeman in Burma, through his early years as a rather dour documentary writer, and his formative experiences as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Robert Colls traces, in particular, Orwell's complex relationship with his country, from the alienated intellectual of the mid-1930s through a gradual reconciliation, to the exhilarating peaks of his wartime writing. He explores the mistakes and contradictions, the lucky escapes and near misses, and what they tell us about Orwell as man and author.