Orwell lived in London four different times during his life for a total of approximately ten years altogether. During our one day in London we were able to visit places from three of those periods.

The first time Orwell lived in London was in the fall and winter of 1928 when he was twenty-four years old. He stayed six months and then moved to Paris, after which time he wrote his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London.

Orwell moved to London for the second time in the fall of 1934 when he was thirty-one years old after having written his second and third books, Burmese Days and A Clergyman's Daughter. He stayed a little over a year, until January 1936, during which time he worked in a bookstore and wrote his fourth book, Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

Orwell moved to London for the third time in March 1940 when he was thirty-six years old and had written his fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth books, The Road to Wigan Pier; Homage to Catalonia; Coming Up for Air and Inside the Whale. He stayed seven years - the entire duration of World War Two and beyond - until April 1947, during which time he was a member of the Home Guard; worked for the BBC; wrote hundreds of book reviews, essays and columns for various magazines and newspapers and wrote his ninth and tenth books, The Lion and the Unicorn and Animal Farm.

Orwell moved back to London for the fourth time in January 1949 when he was forty-five years old and had just completed is eleventh book, 1984. He spent the entire year in the hospital, dying in January 1950, at the age of forty-six.

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