ORWELL TOUR

Sub-titled 'Travels Through the Life and Work of George Orwell', this travelogue follows in the footsteps of a literary hero. Historian Oliver Lewis set out to visit all the places known to have inspired and been lived in by George Orwell. Over three years he travelled from Wigan to Catalonia, Paris to Motihari, Marrakesh to Eton, and in each location explored how both Orwell experienced the place, and how the place now remembers him as a literary icon. Beginning in Northern India where Orwell was born in 1903, and ending in the Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay where he was laid to rest in 1950, we roam widely - living in London, Southwold, Henley, Wallington, Hayes and Jura, this rootless, restless man is celebrated in this first rate innovative and thorough book. Chapters include Hayes (schoolmaster 1932-3), Hampstead (book lover 1934-5), Wallington (Animal Farm 1936-45) and Wigan (Down and Out 1936), Fitzrovia (Bombs and the BBC 1939-45) among them. 285pp, maps.