George Orwell and Animal Farm

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The novel Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of the communist leader Joseph Stalin. It was first published shortly after the end of World War Two, as the Cold War was just beginning. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Orwell's adopted son, Richard Blair, about George Orwell's work, and about his memories of his father.

Photo: George Orwell with Richard on his knee in the 1940s. Credit: Vernon Richards

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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1:03.4	Listen on BBC Sounds.
1:05.4	Hello and thank you for downloading a witness from the BBC World Service.
1:09.8	I'm Louise Adaggo and today I'm taking you back to August 1945 when one of the great
1:15.2	classics of English literature was published. Animal Farm by George Orwell was an
1:19.9	allegory warning of the dangers of Soviet communism and of the Soviet leader
1:24.4	Britain's wartime ally Joseph Stalin.
1:27.2	I've been talking to George Orwell's son about Orwell's work and his memories of
	...

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