To Orwell Today,
re: BIRTH SHRINE TO ORWELL

Dear Jackie,

Greetings from the country of Orwell's birth. I have been drawn towards George Orwell's works recently purely after reading some of the things he has written and which I found quoted. I have been trying to obtain his biographies and works and except for "Animal Farm" and "1984" have run into a dead end. The search on-line yields derisory results -- and books which can be ordered and imported on these sites are prohibitively priced for shippage to India.

As you have traced Orwell's footsteps in UK, I am curious to know whether any place of interest exists in India connected to Orwell, besides the house where he was born in Motihari town in Bihar in India.

I have read your comments and find them very readable. Is it possible to get hold of the two books that you have written.

Many regards, yours sincerely,
Ashok

Greetings Ashok,

It's always good to hear from Orwell fans in India -- the land where Orwell was born 111 years ago in 1903 -- his birthday coming up soon on June 25th, 2014.

After leaving Motihari, Bihar when he was one-year-old Orwell never did travel again to India, although he came close when living in Burma for five years from 1922-1927.

Orwell almost returned to India in 1938 when he was offered a job as editor for the Pioneer newspaper in the city of Lucknow which is about 250 miles from Motihari -- but illness prevented him from accepting and instead Orwell went to Morocco for a year and wrote COMING UP FOR AIR.

So sorry you're having difficulty obtaining Orwell biographies in India. Reading books about Orwell is as interesting as reading books by Orwell -- and learning about his life gives even deeper meaning to his books.

I obtained many of my books by and about Orwell from second-hand bookstores in travels over the years -- and from ordering used on-line from websites like Alibris and Abe Books etc. But shipping in North America -- ie from USA to Canada -- is much cheaper than shipping from the UK which is, as you say, prohibitive -- unless you're in UK.

But actually it's possible to find many of ORWELL'S WORKS FREE ON-LINE at the University of Adelaide, Australia website.

My two books tracing Orwell's footsteps through the UK are at ORWELL TODAY at HOMAGE TO ORWELL and PILGRIMAGE TO ORWELL.

Thanks so much for being in touch and great to have you as a reader.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
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