George Orwell bibliography published in collections during his life—"Inside the Whale and Other Essays" by his original publisher Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1940, and "Critical Essays" by Secker and Warburg in 1946. The latter press also published the collections "Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays" in 1950 (republished by Penguin in 2003) and "England Your England and Other Essays" in 1953. Since his death many collections of essays have appeared, with the first attempt at a comprehensive collection being the four-volume "Collected Essays, Letters and Journalism of George Orwell" edited by Ian Angus and Sonia Brownell, which was published by Secker and Warburg
George Orwell spent time in Wallington and Southwold working on a Dickens essay and it was in July 1939 that Orwell's father, Richard Blair, died. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Orwell's wife Eileen started working in the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information in central London, staying during the week with her family in Greenwich. Orwell also submitted his name to the Central Register for war work, but nothing transpired. "They won't have me in the army, at any rate at present, because of my lungs", Orwell told Geoffrey Gorer. He returned to Wallington, and in late 1939