The Blair/Orwell Essay & Forum
31 January – 30 March 2010
The Blair/Orwell Essays in 2010 are introduced by Professor Peter Davison. He has written for us each year and hopes to continue to do so. This pleases us very much because he is, after all, the Delphic Oracle where George Orwell is concerned. It took him nearly 25 years to complete, with the help of Ian Angus, The Complete Works of George Orwell, the last of its 20 volumes was published in 1998. Since then he has edited and published several more books on Orwell, including updates on both the Orwell Diaries and The Letters. Last year saw the publication of George Orwell Diaries, which he edited and this coming June Harvill Seckers are bringing out another update edited by him, which includes new material recently come to light. We will review this book in June.
Forum members and readers are asked to keep an eye on our Review section as there will be several new books by our Orwell writers reviewed here during the year.
Our Online Review Section is devoted to reviewing new works concerning George Orwell, and also new publications by those who write primarily about Orwell. The object of the exercise is to allow the satisfaction of instant response from readers through the protected membership of The Forum. The Online Review Section and the Forum are accessed from this Homepage. All the essays from 2008/2009 are available for study in the Essay Archive. The line-up of writers for 2010 is most encouraging.
31 January – 30 March 2010 ESSAY
by Peter Davison
PROFESSOR Peter Davison, having spent nearly 25 years compiling The Complete Works of George Orwell in 20 volumes, has also written another six books with Orwell as subject. He must be regarded, therefore, as one of the prime sources of knowledge concerning this great socio-political literary genius of the 20th century.
Professor Davison, having been appointed a Fellowship at the Shakespeare Institute, worked at the University of Birmingham and lectured at universities worldwide, including Australia and the United States. In 1991 he joined the newly-created De Montfort University in Leicester as a Research Professor. He was awarded the OBE in 1999 and also in the same year D.Litt. and Hons.D. Arts degrees. A Life in Letters, will be published by Harvill Secker and that, too, is scheduled to appear in paperback from Penguin in January 2011. In 2009 he was appointed Emeritus Professor of English at Glyndŵr University. In 2003 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society.
In 2006 his supplement to the Complete Works of George Orwell, The Lost Orwell was published by Timewell Press, and in September 2009 Harvill Secker published his edition of Orwell’s Diaries. Penguin will publish that in paperback in June 2010.
Essays by Sir Bernard Crick, Peter Davison, Gordon Bowker, Loraine Saunders, Douglas Kerr, DJ Taylor, Richard Blair, John Rodden, William Hunt, Peter Stansky and Ron Bateman may also be located for study in The Orwell Essay Archive.
Applications for entry to Orwell Prize closed on January 20th. For details see The Orwell Prize website or email gavin.freeguard@mediastandardstrust.org
