Orwell in Tribune

George Orwell's most important and lasting newspaper journalism is to be found in the columns he wrote for the left-wing weekly "Tribune" during the mid-1940s. A reviewer from 1940, he became the paper's literary editor in 1943, and in the next thirteen months wrote 59 weekly pieces under the rubric "As I Please", on an extraordinarily diverse range of topics. He left to work briefly for the "Observer" as a war correspondent, but in autumn 1945 resumed his "Tribune" column, writing weekly opinion pieces in 1945-6 and a further 21 installments of "As I Please" in 1946-7. Orwell's columns - written while he was working on his two greatest novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" - have never before been collected in a single volume. This book shows Orwell at the height of his powers as a writer - as his biographer, Bernard Crick, put it, 'the Doctor Johnson of the left'.

'By George, he was brilliant A... An excellent read.' Observer'The greatest of modern iconoclasts, with a deadly lash for allhypocrisies A... Nothing comparable with his column has been seen inrecent journalistic history.' Michael Foot'One of the most engaging features of the column ... is the sense ofdialogue, points taken up, conceded or refuted, continuity rather thana trail of pronouncements which the reader could take or leave as heor she chose.' D. J. Taylor'Indisputably the most important and valuable addition to theOrwellian library A... Buy, beg or borrow it. It is the essential Orwell.' Yorkshire Post'Few columnists outlast their age, but George Orwell's pieces forTribune are an exception.' Francis Beckett, Guardian

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