Writers interested in the political struggles of the time followed Koestler and other Europeans closely. Orwell wrote, "Rubashov might be called Trotsky, Bukharin, Rakovsky or some other relatively civilised figure among the Old Bolsheviks". In 1944, Orwell thought that the best political writing in English was being done by Europeans and other non-native British. His essay on Koestler discussed "Darkness at Noon". Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia", about the Spanish Civil War, sold poorly; he decided after reviewing "Darkness at Noon" that fiction was the best way to describe totalitarianism, and wrote "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". When reviewing "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Arthur Mizener said that Orwell drew on his feelings about Koestler's handling of Rubashov's confession when he wrote his extended section of the conversion of Winston Smith.