On Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Story of George Orwell's Masterpiece

Written by D.J. Taylor

Narrated by Charles Armstrong

From the author of the definitive biography of George Orwell comes a captivating account of the origin and enduring power of his landmark dystopian novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781666579697

D.J. Taylor

D.J. Taylor has written twelve novels, including English Settlement (1996), which won a Grinzane Cavour Prize,Trespass (1998) and Derby Day(2011), both of which were long-listed for the Booker Prize, Kept (2006), a U.S. Publishers' Weekly Book of the Year, and The Windsor Faction (2013), joint winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. His non-fiction includes Orwell: The Life, winner of the 2003 Whitbread Prize for Biography, The Prose Factory: Literary Life in England Since 1918 (2016) and Lost Girls: Love, War and Literature 1939-1951 (2019). His most recent books are a collection of short stories, Stewkey Blues (2022), and Critic at Large: Essays and Reviews: 2010-2022 (2023). His new biography, Orwell: The New Life, was published in 2023. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Norwich with his wife, the novelist Rachel Hore.

Reviews for On Nineteen Eighty-Four

[Lee Cooper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mr Taylor vividly brought the creation of this novel to life through a combination of interesting facts about Orwell’s personal life and wider related cultural references.
I found the writing taut and engaging.
Sadly in Chapter 9 his dreary and supercilious progressive world view, with its obligatory dash of TDS, was revealed.
A lack of self awareness of partial perspectives, life in a leftist bubble will do that to you, coupled with dishonest yet clever word smithing found him guilty of the charges he laid, based on thin evidence, against others.