I guess no-one can be unaware of the the awful mess the world seems to have got itself into; or rather, the humans on it, because I often think that nature and the animals would manage quite well without us here. The last couple of months of 2019 were particularly hideous, and we seem to be surrounded by hate and lies wherever we turn. After the result of the UK General Election (one I was expecting, but was particularly unhappy about) I found myself drawing much comfort from reading George Orwell, and in particular a book which Youngest Child gifted me a while ago; a lovely anthology entitled “Orwell on Truth”. Bearing in mind how many lies seem to be thrown about wildly nowadays, his views were prescient, trenchant and so very relevant.

Orwell made great company on a train journey from hell in December… Here we are in Ely Station waiting room… (at least it wasn’t snowing!)

“Orwell on Truth” draws quotations and extracts from a wide range of his works, starting with “Burmese Days” in 1934 up until his final masterwork “Nineteen Eighty Four”. All are startling, enlightening and bracing, showing for me what a unique thinker and commentator he was, and also how we’re missing someone of his stature nowadays. Interestingly, the extracts revealed the fact that there were recurring motifs in his work (the ‘boot in face’ one from “Nineteen Eighty Four” turned up surprisingly early in 1941).

Rather than go on and on about how brilliant Orwell was, I thought I would just share a few favourite quotes here; and if they encourage you to go and read him, so much the better. As Alan Johnson says in his pithy introduction, “Orwell’s writing brought clarity and an understanding of the dark and dangerous times we were living through” and I think that statement applies very much to today. I certainly found reading Owell helped my mind to settle and clarify, and as Christopher Hitchens said, he is still “vividly contemporary“. Orwell’s writing is always clear and pertinent, and I doubt we will see his like again.

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The monied class can keep all the important ministerial and official jobs in its own hands, and it can work the electoral system in its own favour by bribing the electorate, directly or indirectly. Even when by some mischance a government representing the poorer classes gets into power, the rich can usually blackmail it… (1941)

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One of the worst things about a democratic society in the last twenty years has been the difficulty of any straight talking or thinking. (1941)

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If the intellectual liberty which without a doubt has been one of the distinguishing marks of western civilisation means anything at all, it means that everyone shall have the right to say and to print what he believes to be the truth, provided only that it does not harm the rest of the community in some quite unmistakable way. Both capitalist democracy and the western versions of Socialism have till recently taken that principle for granted. (1945)

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It is not said often enough that a nation gets the newspapers it deserves… When the bulk of the press is owned by handful of people, one has not much choice… (1946)

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Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. (1945)