George orwell gay
Sadistic and misogynistic? Row erupts over sex claims in book about George Orwell’s marriage
George Orwell was in his mids, enjoying the peak of his fame after the publication of Animal Farm. Yet his mood was low after the death of his wife, Eileen. He was in Wales with his friend Arthur Koestler, where they were joined by year-old Celia Kirwan. She and Orwell spent the night together, with Kirwan commenting afterwards that the author made love “Burma-sergeant fashion”, clearly in a hurry and simply saying: “Ah, that’s better” before turning over.
This story is included in a recent book, Wifedom, about the marriage of Orwell and his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. However, the creator is now at the centre of a row about the veracity of some of the claims that she makes, including this one.
This story of Orwell and Kirwan’s sexual encounter is one of the passages that Viking, part of Penguin Random House, has agreed to correct, as well as another that tells of a trip where the pair met on the Scottish island of Jura. One more is the location of Orwell’s land of birth, wh
'My dad George Orwell was a loving parent and a protective husband. As for being a closet homosexual, that's a load of old b***ocks!' says Richard Blair
To this diurnal he has warm childhood memories of his father Eric Blair, better acknowledged as George Orwell. 'He was a hands-on parent with me,' Richard Blair recalled this week. 'He did those practical things that at that moment a woman would usually do.'
Rather less affectionate terms have been used to describe Richard's father in recent days — the kind of words that can destroy a reputation overnight: 'sadistic', 'misogynistic', 'homophobic', 'sometimes violent'.
It is impressive — indeed some would say bemusing — that almost 74 years after Orwell's premature death, which left his son an orphan aged five, someone should use such inflammatory language to describe the author of such classics of English literature as Animal Farm and
The claims were made by Australian writer Anna Funder, a former human rights lawyer, at the highbrow Cheltenham Literature Festival, where she was promoting her biography of Richard's mother, and Orwell's firs
Orwell News
Orwell’s dislike of homosexuals follows him through his perform like the clang of a medieval leper bell. In fact, ‘dislike’ is putting it mildly, for his attitude to the horde of ‘Nancy boys’, ‘pansies’ and maquerons (Homage to Catalonia’s Spanish equivalent) who mince through his private demonology is actually one of profound contempt. There is a rather revealing moment first on in Keep the Aspidistra Flying when, with Gordon standing vigilantly by his till, an obviously moneyed immature man trips ‘Nancifully’ into the bookshop. All Gordon’s worst instincts are straightaway aroused: the newcomer, with his ‘R-less Nancy voice’ is instantly reduced to caricature: ‘May I just bwowse? I simply couldn’t wesist your fwont window. I have such a tewwible weakness for bookshops! So I just floated in – tee-hee!’ ‘Float out again, then, Nancy,’ Gordon thinks. The really dreadful thing about the scene is that it is so clearly personal. Orwell, you deduce, had seen someone like this stroll into Booklovers’ Corner, been revolted by him and stored up the memory for use in pri
Author Anna Funder on George Orwell's sexuality and society's serious issue with successful women
She has the infectious attitude of a rabid book fan (we march immediately off to see Damian Barr and Catherine Taylor talk about their respective memoirs; Barr later tells her he felt “so honoured” to see her in attendance). So it’s easy to forget she’s actually at the festival to talk about her own new book, Wifedom; a frank study of George Orwell’s marriage to his first wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy. A combination of reportage and fiction, Funder’s revelations about George Orwell’s treatment of his ‘erased’ wife Eileen possess sent ripples throughout the fiercely protective Orwell community (yes, there absolutely is such a thing). Anna Funder has clearly clueless none of her ability to quicken hearts and heighten blood pressure.
“People are very shocked and angry reading Wifedom,” she agrees. “I’ve had six years to get used to these ideas, but they’re very shocking when you first come a