I adore Orwell. The second chapter of The Road to Wigan Pier (separately published in the excellent essay collection 'Inside The Whale'), which describes the wo

I adore Orwell. The second chapter of The Road to Wigan Pier (separately published in the excellent essay collection 'Inside The Whale'), which describes the working conditions of coal miners in the North of England, is one of the greatest pieces of journalistic writing in history [1]. In fact the whole book is very good, and contrary to this article I think only a fool would not find it relevant to the modern day - especially in its discussion of utopianism and the post-work society. In general, the fact that Orwell is remembered in the public consciousness as the 1984 guy is a shame (and is particularly jarring when right wing populists invoke his name to decry people who try and get them to stop lying). Orwell's essay 'England Your England' (the first part of 'The Lion and the Unicorn') is perhaps his piece which is dearest to my heart, as a patriotic but anti-reactionary Englishman. However, of broader appeal are 'Shooting an Elephant' and 'A Hanging' - essays which expose the brutal workings of colonialism better than any jargon-laden journal of post-colonial theory ever could. But that's just the start when it comes to Orwell. I don't think the man wrote anything not worth reading and at his best he was near-untouchable in his ability to capture in the written word a society and its injustices. [1] https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/mine/english/e_dtm https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/mine/english/e_dtm