Homage to Catalonia 1943. The closing phrase of the poem, "No bomb that ever burst shatters the crystal spirit", was later taken by George Woodcock for the title of his Governor General's Award-winning critical study of Orwell and his work, "The Crystal Spirit" (1966). Homage to Catalonia Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. The war was one of the shaping events on his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write, in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written
The Spanish Civil War and the British Left Franco". Tom Buchanan, writing in "The English Historical Review", questioned Mates's commentary on working-class Catholics' reactions to the Red Terror and the lack of the detail offered on topics including aid initiatives, but described the book as " a valuable addition to the burgeoning literature on Britain and the Spanish Civil War, and one that deserves to be read alongside—and as a corrective to—the 'national' studies." In "History", Paul Corthorn questioned Mates's account of the influence of the "popular frontist" interpretation of events, but praised his engagement with Buchanan on the question of Catholics and described the book as "a