Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: Angry Old Etonian
2: North Road
3: Eye Witness in Barcelona, 1937
4: Mr Bowling Sees it Through
5: England the Whale
6: Not Quite Tory
7: Last of England
8: Death in the Family
Life After Death: A Bibliographical Essay
Notes
Index
Robert Colls is Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University, Leicester. He was born in South Shields and educated at South Shields Grammar Technical School and the universities of Sussex and York. He has held fellowships at the universities of Oxford, Yale, and Dortmund, and with the Leverhulme Trust. He is author of the acclaimed Identity of England, which is also published by Oxford University Press (2002).
an honest and at times brilliant essay in biography and
intellectual history-writing...the book really does offer a nuanced
and fresh view
*The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies*
Robert Colls's fine study of Orwell... is sympathetic yet sceptical
in tone, crammed with persuasive insights, bracing in its judgments
and written in a pleasingly informal and occasionally idiosyncratic
style
*Dublin Review of Books, Enda O'Doherty*
Scholarly and intriguing, it is a lovely semi-biography and a
fascinating treatment of an English writer.
*Les Gofton, Book of the Year 2014, Times Higher Education*
In [Colls'] book, the reader catches echoes of the kind of spirited
English conversation in which Orwell fervently believed.
*Christopher Hilliard, History Today*
No book about Orwell can be perfect; the man was too contradictory
and too bloody minded to be an easy study. But Colls really gets it
... puts his finger on it...
*Spiked*
An eloquent reminder that George Orwell loved his country
rebelliously ... both timely and necessary.
*Calum Mechie, TLS*
Full of learning and insight ... Colls is a lovely writer, who is
fearless in a way that academics too often are not. He is happy to
subvert clichés, make little speeches and is willing to permit
useful generalisations ... There are several ways in which - quite
apart from the success or otherwise of Colls' thesis - this book is
a kind of Orwellian triumph.
*David Aaronovitch, New Statesman*
This is an excellent, provocative addition to Orwell ... an
exceptionally interesting book ... Colls is now entitled to
consider himself a prime ornament ... of Orwell studies.
*D J Taylor, The Guardian*
Colls is an honest and intelligent writer, interrogating a mind
that he very much admires, about issues that he deeply cares
about.
*Roger Scruton, The Times*
Illuminating insights ... [a] thought-provoking study.
*Yvonne Sherratt, Times Higher Education Supplement*
This is the most sensible and systematic interpretation of George
Orwell's books that I have ever read ... This biography's
achievement is to give us back Orwell the writer - neither a saint,
nor an infallible sage, but a perverse, intelligent commentator on
his time, and also, on occasion, a superb critic.
*A. N. Wilson, The Spectator*
a stunning piece of work, well researched, tautly written and often
funny ... It is the best book on Orwell to appear for several
years, erudite and original. It catches the extent to which Orwell
lived on his wits better than any other account of his life. It's
up there with Crick, Gordon Bowker and DJ Taylor.
*Paul Anderson, Tribune*
A compact intellectual biography with much political and social
content ... There are useful critiques of Orwell's early "angry"
novels, his gradual appreciation of the working class, and the
political contradictions that he never fully resolved ... General
readers will benefit from Colls's deft analysis of Orwell's
writings and his attempt to pin down the author's politics.
*Library Journal*
[A] lucid work of intellectual biography Colls's engaging style and
frequent bursts of astringent wit make for lively reading suitable
for any Orwell enthusiast.
*Publishers Weekly*
Subtle, probing and refreshingly original study the closest and
most intimate portrait of Orwell to date
*John Gray, Literary Review*
Short, witty and intelligent performing a valuable service by
situating Orwell in the context of interwar history.
*Robin McGhee, Prospect*
There have been many books written about George Orwell but this is
surely among the best. Rob Colls has taken on the man's
Englishness, his personality, warts and all, and the elusive notion
that he was a rebel in his own land. It's full of zesty prose, fine
insights and a freshness of interpretation which made it a pleasure
to read. It's a major achievement and a major work on George
Orwell.
*Melvyn Bragg*
a lovely semi-biography and a fascinating treatment of an English
writer.
*Les Gofton, Times Higher Education*
Colls's book is innovative and rewarding, despite covering a
well-trodden field.
*Gal Gerson, The European Legacy*
Colls identifies and analyses a strand of Orwell's authorship the
importance of which has been consistently underestimated: Orwell's
highly problematic relations with his English inheritance By
showing how this concern changed its shape over time Colls has
changed our view of Orwell's life and work, and offered a fresh
perspective on a pivotal period in English intellectual and
political history.
*John Gray, author of Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other
Animals*
This book should interest both informed general readers and serious
students of Orwell's work, for it represents a judicious and
all-too-rare example of being an absorbing intellectual biography
undergirded by scrupulous literary scholarship.
*John Rodden, editor of The Cambridge Companion to George
Orwell*
Colls has written a highly entertaining book in the good plain
jargon-free prose style so valued by its subject it has much for
the general reader and student, and will ruffle a few ideological
feathers which, as Orwell well knew, is always a good thing.
*Spokesman*
Thought-provoking and illuminating.
*London Magazine*
Refreshingly vibrant and all round excellent book ... George
Orwell: English Rebel is as much a stimulating read as it is
inspiring. Although more importantly, it's acutely informative.
*David Marx Book Reviews*
Superb.
*Spiked*
In his book the reader catches echoes of the kind of spirited
English conversation in which Orwell fervently believed.
*Christopher Hilliard, History Today*
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