George Orwell George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, Imperial police officer, and critic whose work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism and outspoken support of democratic socialism. Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the allegorical novella "Animal Farm" (1945) and the dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949). His non-fiction works, including "The Road to Wigan Pier" (1937), documenting his experience of working class life in the north of England,
George Orwell and Burnham Beeches. When Orwell was in the sanatorium in Kent, his wife's friend Lydia Jackson visited. He invited her for a walk and out of sight "an awkward situation arose." Jackson was to be the most critical of Orwell's marriage to Eileen O'Shaughnessy, but their later correspondence hints at a complicity. Eileen at the time was more concerned about Orwell's closeness to Brenda Salkield. Orwell had an affair with his secretary at "Tribune" which caused Eileen much distress, and others have been mooted. In a letter to Ann Popham he wrote: "I was sometimes unfaithful to Eileen, and I