David Taylor.
DAVID TAYLOR
oRWELL: THE NEW LIFE (2023)
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (born 1903). He was one of the most influential British authors of the 20th century. His most famous fictional works were the political allegory Animal Farm, and the dark futuristic novel Nineteen Eighty=Four. He also wrote to books of reminiscence. The Road to Wigan Pier recounted his experiences growing up in a working class family. Homage to Catalonia covered his service on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell’s first job was as with the Imperial police in Burma, after which he settled in Suffolk and embarked on a writing career. His first book - Burmese Days - was published in 1934.
In its review of David Taylor’s biography of Orwell, the New Statesman wrote: ‘If you want to know how [Orwell] became a great writer, and a tormented figure, and a national treasure, David Taylor's New Life is the doubleplusgood place to start’. The Telegraph wrote of the book: ‘An astonishing verdict on George Orwell's virtues - and his vices . . . [The book] adds fresh material to give a fuller portrait of the real Eric Blair . . . it is hard to imagine him portrayed more sensitively or judiciously than he is here’.
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David Taylor (born 1960) is a British novelist and critic, who has written biographies of George Orwell and William Makepeace Thackeray. He writes under the name D.J.Taylor. He was born and brought up in Norwich, where he still lives. He took his degree in Modern History at St.John’s College, Oxford.
