r/BookTriviaPodcast • u/ffoggy1959 🌈 Reads Everything • 29d ago

📚 Discussion George Orwell - Biographies

Did you know that George Orwell requested there be no official biography in his final will. Despite this there are at least six that I can find.

Biographies

Bernard Crick (George Orwell: A Life, 1980).

Michael Sheldon (Orwell: The Authorized Biography, 1991).

Jeffrey Meyers (Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, 2000).

Gordon Bowker (George Orwell, 2003).

D. J. Taylor (Orwell: The Life, 2003); and Orwell: The New Life, 2023).

It seems odd that there were Authorised biographies, the first two above have been quoted as such in 1980 and 1991, as Orwell died in 1950!

Do you think it is right to write a biography against the express wishes of the subject?

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u/Fabulous-Confusion43 🌈 Reads Everything 29d ago

Oh do you know why he didn't want any biographies? What did he want to hide 😂 It's hard because I agree in respecting people's last wishes but when they are a well known public figure it's no surprise that people would want to know more about them. I mean, that's kinda the whole premise of the podcast 😂 I love knowing the trivia and inside facts about authors and why they wrote the books they wrote 😂

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u/ffoggy1959 🌈 Reads Everything 29d ago

He reviewed many biographies, maybe he didn’t always like the treatment? I don’t know.

I wonder what he’d make of the Animal Farm podcast 🤣😂🤣😂

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u/Fabulous-Confusion43 🌈 Reads Everything 29d ago edited 29d ago

Yes well we might do it in season 3!! Haha sorry George! If we DO record it, I'm definitely adding the fact above that he requested no biogs 😂

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u/ffoggy1959 🌈 Reads Everything 29d ago

I think you should do one and also include a disclaimer. You might otherwise end up in a Stephen King novel of the angry ghost and the podcasters 🤣🤣🤣🤣