George Orwell

George Orwell (pseudonym for Eric Blair [1903-50]) was born in Bengal and educated at Eton; after service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he returned to Europe to earn his living penning novels and essays. He was essentially a political writer who focused his attention on his own times, a man of intense feelings and intense hates. An opponent of totalitarianism, he served in the Loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War. Besides his classic Animal Farm , his works include a novel based on his experiences as a colonial policeman, Burmese Days , two firsthand studies of poverty, Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier , an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia ; and the extraordinary novel of political prophecy whose title became part of our language, 1984 .