Robert Colls.
ROBERT COLLS
oRWELL: ENGLISH REBEL (2013)
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (born 1903). He was one of the most influential British authors of the 20th century. His most famous fictional works were the political allegory Animal Farm, and the dark futuristic novel Nineteen Eighty=Four. He also wrote to books of reminiscence. The Road to Wigan Pier recounted his experiences growing up in a working class family. Homage to Catalonia covered his service on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell’s first job was as with the Imperial police in Burma, after which he settled in Suffolk and embarked on a writing career. His first book - Burmese Days - was published in 1934.
The Guardian described Ropbert Colls’ biography of Orwell as: ‘An excellent, provocative addition to Orwell studies’. The Independent wrote of the book: ‘Ostensibly an academic text, Colls’s book is both authoritative and gloriously readable. Colls writes like an offbeat mixture of Isaiah Berlin and Clive James – which is to say, like a dream – and his lucid interpretation of Orwell’s life and work makes sense of his various contradictions.’
MEET THE AUTHOR
CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO OF THE AUTHOR (3 MINUTES)
Robert Colls (born 1949) obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Sussex, and his PhD at the University of York. He taught at the University of Leicester and then at De Montfort University. His areas of interest include national and regional identities and cultural history.
