Though I haven’t read all his works, I consider myself a fan of George Orwell, who died 75 years ago today. If having a copy of 1984 on the bedside table is enough to get the UK Government’s ‘Prevent’ programme sweating, my bookcase would have them both shaken and stirred.
A personal favourite is his 1939 novel Coming Up for Air, set in the run up to the commencement of the Second World War. The novel’s protagonist, George Bowling, is a lower middle-class, middle-aged man dissatisfied with his lot in life who feels a deep anxiety about the coming global war and is simultaneously perplexed by the seeming indifference of those around him.
