My Favourite Books

Number 5 - The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell In an earlier entry in this blog I had proudly shown off the Para Handy tales as the only prize I ever won at Primary School. Well now comes the only prize I ever won at Secondary The illustration of volume 4 above is representative of the complete set of volumes 1-4, published in Penguin paperback in 1970. The paperback format was a matter of some dissension and trouble - in an act of astonishing liberalism, prize-winners were allowed to choose their own prizes, but the powers-that-be in the school thought it would be more 'appropriate' if my prize was some nice hardback on the history of gardening or something similar. They were frankly appalled that, not only had I chosen a proletarian format, but I had chosen the works of a pinko leftie, a man who was not to be trusted in life, and who was even more suspect in death. I recall that there was a bit of a row about this until I resolved it by saying that it was Orwell or nothing. I'm very glad that I insisted. I don't suppose that any other book or set of books has had as much influence on my life as these four volumes. Apart from being written in Orwell's famously economic yet precise style, the pieces here shine a light on the social history of pre-war Britain, illuminate the history of left-wing politics, provide introductions to various strands of intellectual, cultural and literary thought, and entertain consistently. Here you find Orwell reviewing contemporary works by such as JB Priestley, Arthur Koestler, Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer) and even Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf). Here he is corresponding with TS Eliot, Stephen Spender and Cyril Connolly etc. Here is his obituary for Kipling. Here are his regular 'As I Please' columns in Tribune. Here are his simply amazing essays on Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, public schools, the Dirty Postcards of Donald McGill, executions, Mark Twain, Tobias Smollett, Boys Comics, PG Wodehouse, anti-semitism, and hundreds of other varied topics. In short, here is simply the best of Orwell.