My birthday calendar says we’ve got Orwell and Carly Simon on the same day? That’s literary-political sass and 70s self-aware sparkle rolled into one. Delicious!
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
That’s probably the most famous line from today’s birthday boy. I use it often, prone as I am to anthropomorphism. Take my dear David, the Thin White Duke, who considers himself the top animal in my house. He lets me know when it’s time to stop working at my desk and move to another chair every evening. Lawdy, you want to hear him protest if he’s ready for repose and I’m still sitting in his chair after dark. Alas, my room is not my own to write in.
Orwell is my literary god of anthropomorphism, but it took him a while before he gave us Animal Farm.
The Early Years: Eric Arthur Blair
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name George Orwell. He hated school until he landed at Eton. When he met his first girlfriend, he was standing on his head in a field. Asked why, he said, “You get noticed more if you stand on your head than if you’re upright.”
He became a policeman, which he absolutely hated. Always feeling like an outsider, he wrote about sneering faces and insults that followed him wherever he went. He was caught between despising the empire he served and being furious at the “evil-spirited little beasts” who made his job miserable. Sporting a silly moustache and tattoos that made him look like he’d been beaten with a wet comic book, he caught dengue fever and was shipped back to England. Here, he went “native” in his own country, dressing in tramp’s rags and using the name P.S. Burton.
His early work chronicled the brutal realities of slum life in essays like The Spike and his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. Ironically, while he loathed much of his own situation, he never had to worry about rent, thanks to a rich auntie in France who gave him money and a room of his own to write in.
Paris, Poverty, and the Power of a Room
In early 1928, Blair trotted off to Paris and settled in a humble working-class neighbourhood. His aunt Nellie, a steady source of social company and financial backing, kept him afloat. It was here he began writing novels, including early drafts of Burmese Days, though those vanished without a trace. More successful was his journalism. He published in political and literary journals tackling censorship, unemployment, and the gritty realities of the poor and homeless. Poverty became his obsession, threading through his writing for years to come. Not long after, he fell seriously ill and ended up in a free hospital that doubled as a teaching facility. This grim experience later inspired his essay How the Poor Die. Shortly after, all his money was stolen, forcing him to take menial jobs like dishwashing in a fancy hotel. He hated these jobs, but they gave him raw material, and again, a free roof over his head.
No matter how much he hated the places he found himself in, Blair always had that crucial lifeline: some money and a room to call his own.
Back to Southwold and the Struggle for Recognition
By December 1929, Blair had had enough of Paris and hopped on a train back home to Southwold, the quiet seaside town where his parents lived. Here, he enjoyed the small-town comforts of family and friends. Though not settling down for good, he appreciated the steady roof and the free room to write, even if it was his parents’ house.
His life in those years was a tale of contrasts: the respectable young man tutoring and writing by day, and the restless “Burton” persona slipping away to live rough in London’s East End and the countryside by night. He was fascinated by the very poverty he sought to escape and worked hard to understand the lives of the poor. Ironically, despite his keen interest in their struggles, he was cushioned by the generosity of family and friends who gave him a place to fall back on; what Virginia Woolf might have called “a room of one’s own,” though his was far humbler than hers.
Rejections, Arrest, and Teaching
And then came the rejections.
Blair’s first book, A Scullion’s Diary was turned down by big publishers. In a typically dramatic move, he got himself arrested just before Christmas to see what prison life was like. Unfortunately, his drunk and disorderly act wasn’t serious enough to get him a sentence, so after a couple of days in the cells he was sent back home to Southwold, back to the familiar free room he hated but needed.
With few other options, he went off to a teaching job for steady cash and, again, the free room to write. In 1932, Blair began teaching at a tiny school in west London. News arrived that a new radical publisher was willing to take a chance on his work, giving him a small advance for his book. Over the next year, he moved between teaching jobs and battled illness,A motorcycle trip left him with pneumonia, which nearly killed him. After recovery, he quit teaching and found work in a second-hand bookshop, living comfortably enough to write during the mornings and socialise in the evenings.
Gardening and Growing into Orwell
His living situation remained precarious, however, and once again, Aunt Nellie came through, offering him a tiny cottage in Hertfordshire. Here, alongside writing The Road to Wigan Pier, he found comfort in gardening, something he said he cared about almost as much as writing.
Spain and the Birth of Animal Farm
Eventually, Orwell’s restless nature led him to Spain, where he joined the fight in the Civil War. Despite warnings from literary friends about the folly of idealistic motivations, he went determined to confront fascism firsthand. The years that followed were a whirlwind of experience, writings, and events culminating in his landmark work, Animal Farm, published in 1945.
Animal Farm struck a powerful chord with post-war readers, making Orwell a widely sought-after figure. Over the next few years, he juggled journalism for major newspapers with crafting Nineteen Eighty-Four, his dark vision of totalitarianism published in 1949, securing his place as one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.
The Priceless Room
And so, there it is: a life that, for all its restless wandering and tough breaks, always circled back to that indispensable combination of money and a quiet room. Orwell may have hated where he was living at times, but he never had to fret about rent. He longed to understand the lives of the poor, ironically cushioned by the generosity of relatives and friends who provided him shelter and a chance to write. His story winks knowingly at Woolf’s ideal: a room of one’s own might seem a simple luxury, but it is the foundation for all great writing. Even when it’s paid for by aunties and tiny teaching salaries rather than the freedom of wealth.
Thank You, Orwell
I’m eternally grateful for Orwell. Anthropomorphism makes the world a little softer, doesn’t it? In the great library of literary classics, Animal Farm remains a timeless allegory, profoundly relevant in today’s mad, ugly world. I doubt there has ever been a better time to read his books.
I’m not sure David would agree with the “no animal shall sleep in a bed” rule; he’s long since claimed the softest one in the house and shows no remorse for the birds and lizards he’s dispatched. But for all their absurdity, the commandments of Animal Farm make chilling sense when you realise how easily ideals can be rewritten, how the line between fairness and power blurs when no one’s really paying attention. Orwell reminds us that rules are only as good as our memory of why they mattered in the first place. So here they are, the Seven Commandments as they began, and how they ended. A lesson, perhaps, not just for pigs and people, but for anyone tempted to follow the herd without asking where it’s going.
1-Before
Whatever goes upon two legs is a enemy.
1-After
Once the pigs start walking on two legs, two legs become better then four.
2-Before
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
2-After
The pigs end up thinking any animal who walks on four legs or has wings in inferior.
3-Before
No animal shall wear clothes.
3-After
The pigs all end up wearing clothes.
4-Before
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
4-After
“No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”
5-Before
No animal shall drink alcohol.
5-After
“No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”
6-Before
No animal shall kill any other animal.
6-After
“No animal shall kill any other animal without cause”
7-Before
All animals are equal.
7-After
” All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”
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