Podcast Episode · In Our Time · 12 October · 43min

Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment

The estate that inspired Toad Hall is to be handed over to the community, challenging centuries of aristocratic ownership and offering an alternative vision for England’s future

“The performance lasted only half an hour, but we spent hours in preparation, finding props, constructing the scenery etc., all of which [Orwell] supervised closely. It was ambitious. He arranged for ...

Podcast Episode · Late Night Live — Full program podcast · 7 October · 55min

YouTube video by Sony Pictures Classics

On first looking at J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) and George Orwell (1903-1950) they appear to have little in common, as men or writers, other than being peculiarly English authors with evergreen book sa...

This revelatory history shows just how deeply embedded slavery is in the foundations of modern Britain

Foreign ‘invasion plots’ have featured in Australian literature for more than a century. Though critiqued by some authors, fears of white erasure endure.

Australia’s wealthiest private schools continue receiving public funding despite mounting budget pressures, raising questions about whether government spending on education reflects need and the broad...

Australian Greens founding figure Bob Brown has backed the three senators who took the rare step of crossing the floor to vote against the party on plans to develop the Great Koala Park in NSW.

On Thursday the Senate voted not to disallow Labor’s Improved Native Forest Management method, which is designed so big polluters can use forests for carbon offsets rather than having to invest in exp...

“Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”  Animal F...

Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, always described himself as coming from an Anglo-Indian family. Reading the recent post about Muss...

It is as if Holden Caufield is talking to you directly, as his privileged confidant, enlisted in his war against phoniness.

Michael Lockshin’s film adaption of Bulgakov’s anti-censorship masterpiece has become a box office hit in Russia against all odds

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Le Conseil de Paris a approuvé en juin dernier trois plaques commémoratives consacrées à des écrivains : George Orwell dans le 5e arrondissement, Léon-Paul Fa...

“Why I Write” is one of Orwell’s most widely-read, quoted and anthologised essays. It was published during the summer of 1946 in the fourth and final issue of Gangrel. What can we learn from examining...

YouTube video by 1-2 Special

“But the thread that runs through all of Orwell’s writing is his obsession with getting to the truth. If it meant trashing friendships or jeopardising his own success, so be it. In the political magaz...

“But the thread that runs through all of Orwell’s writing is his obsession with getting to the truth. If it meant trashing friendships or jeopardising his own success, so be it. In the political magaz...

“On the spot where we were standing is a small cabin, built of stones loosely piled together, as a shelter for travellers, which in joke has been named “The Castle of Mont Anvert.” An Englishman of th...

For every generation over the last century, Australian women have been more religious than men. But these charts show gen Z is different.

By Martin Tyrrell * In late 1937, George Orwell reviewed Mairin Mitchell’s Storm Over Spain, along with several other books on the Spanish conflict, for Time and Tide. His comments on the Mitchell bo...

DNA taken from bones excavated in and around the stone circle reveal that migrants from continental Europe played a part in the henge’s creation

The University of Bologna has opened a new public library housing the personal book collection of writer Umberto Eco, a decade after his death.

From frontline reporting to a trailblazing comic novel and a prophetic dystopia, which of Eric Blair’s books is the best?

Save Our Schools rejects the idea that fully funding private schools would achieve equity. What is needed is proper support for public education.

“Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”  Animal F...

Sir Keir Starmer says he will ban social media sites for under-16s and impose restrictions on gaming and live streaming platforms in some of the most far-reaching online restrictions globally.

“Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.”  Animal F...