If you’re studying 1984 this year you might be intersested in following the Orwell Diaries.  Since August last year the Orwell Prize has been blogging George Orwell’s 1938 diaries, each diary entry published on the blog exactly seventy years since Orwell wrote it.

You won’t hear much about 1984, he hadn’t written it yet, but it’s a fascinating insight into the life and thinking of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Even if some diary entries talk about nothing except the number of eggs the chickens have laid.

The site says:

‘When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind the page’, wrote George Orwell, in his 1939 essay on Charles Dickens.

Since 9th August 2008, The Orwell Prize has been blogging George Orwell’s diaries, allowing you to gather your own impression of Orwell’s face – behind the screen, rather than the page. Each diary entry is published on the blog exactly seventy years after it was originally written by Orwell, beginning in 1938 and allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict.

What impression of Orwell will emerge? From his domestic diaries (which started on 9th August 2008), it may be a largely unknown Orwell, whose great curiosity is focused on plants, animals, woodwork, and – above all – how many eggs have been laid. From his political diaries (from 7th September 2008), it may be the Orwell whose political observations and critical thinking have enthralled and inspired generations since his death in 1950. Whether writing about the Spanish Civil War or sloe gin, geraniums or Germany, Orwell’s perceptive eye and rebellion against the ‘gramophone mind’ he so despised are obvious.

And for more references on Orwell, don’t neglect the EnglishBook delicious links on Orwell here:

http://delicious.com/englishbook/orwell

Students studying Martin Flanagan’s book The Line for the ‘Encountering Conflict’ context for AOS2 might be interested to find that Flanagan has just begun a regular blog at the AGE HERE.

Could be worth keeping an eye on it as the year develops.

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