finding george orwell in burma by emma larkin

His novel Burmese days – published a few years after his sudden return from Burma was a savage and stinging critique of the racist colonialism that he would have been a part of. So whether or not Animal Farm and Nineteen Eight-Four were really about Burma or not is probably not clear – and it is something Orwellian scholars can debate I am sure, but it would seem that George Orwell was affected by his time there. In 1950 as George Orwell lay dying of TB – having had his typewriter confiscated – he was working on a novella – also set in Burma. My re-reading of Secret Histories was enhanced by having read it so recently. I only read Burmese days this year – it has been in the back of my mind to do so ever since I first read this fascinating book. There are those who Emma Larkin tells us – don’t believe that Orwell just wrote one book about Burma, but that he wrote a trilogy, Burmese days, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four. She asks whether there was something about his experiences in Burma that allowed him to foretell the brutal dictatorship which exists today – but was still almost forty years in the future when Orwell lived in Burma.

In her book Secret Histories Emma Larkin explores the impact of this time upon his work. In the 1920’s George Orwell (still living under his real name of Eric Blair) lived in Burma for five years working as a police officer for the imperial police force. He looked at me with a brilliant flash of recognition, slapped his forehead gleefully, and said ‘You mean the Prophet’ “George Orwell’ I repeated ‘The author of nineteen eighty four’ The old man’s eyes suddenly lit up. This book instantly fascinated me I particularly remembered. I enjoyed them all – but until I came across this book in 2007 I sort of forgot all about dear old George. Many years ago I read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty Four (which rather terrified me as it was before the real 1984 and I was scared it might come true) The Clergyman’s Daughter and Keeping the Aspidistra Flying. It even arrived in time to fit into my month of re-reading. So when Kaggsy from Librarything recently offered me a second hand copy she had found I was delighted. Well it proved rather harder to get a cheap copy (I balked at the some of the high prices on the internet).

I loved it – but rather rashly gave away my copy thinking I could get another copy easily. I first read this book just over 5 years ago – I had to check back to be sure of when it was.

Finding george orwell in burma by emma larkin