George Orwell

Orwell is a huge source of interest to me. I’ve published on his life and work, and at Birmingham I regularly convene or co-convene a final-year undergraduate module called ‘Orwell’s Books’, which takes students through the full sweep of his core book-length publications. I’m making very small steps towards writing a book about Orwell and the emotions—with the exact shape and scope of this yet to be determined—and I also hope at some point to write a book about Nineteen Eighty-Four. More immediate things I have on the go are:

An Orwell-focused, non-fictional trade book
This will be my first trade book, taking a creative-critical approach to Orwell’s life and work. It’s under contract with Oneworld Publications and is due to appear in 2025.

Reading Orwell
An ongoing project (featuring chapter-by-chapter and topic-led descriptive commentaries on Orwell’s novels & non-fiction) aimed at school students & university undergraduates.

The Oxford Handbook of George Orwell
I’ve recently finished editing this book, which features 48 essays on a wide range of topics written by contributors from many different countries, for Oxford University Press as part of its ‘Oxford Handbooks’ series.

George Orwell in Context
I’m also editing this book, which like the Oxford Handbook (above) is a volume of essays on Orwell written by multiple contributors—this time for Cambridge University Press as part of its ‘Literature in Context’ series.

George Orwell Studies
I joined the editorial board of George Orwell Studies in 2022. George Orwell Studies is a biannual, peer-reviewed academic journal, and the leading resource for cutting-edge Orwell scholarship.

Orwelliana
This page lists various online Orwell-focused resources, most of them freely available, that I’ve gathered mainly to support students at Birmingham who pursue the ‘Orwell’s Books’ module (see above)—and also, maybe, for general interest.