Orwell statue unveiled at BBC HQ

A statue of Eric Blair, pen name George Orwell, whose archive is kept at UCL, will be unveiled at BBC HQ today. Orwell worked at BBC between 1941 and 1943 as an Assistant Talks Producer and was scornful of institutions in general. His time at the BBC, however, became inextricably linked to his writing practice: the office he occupied for most of his time there inspired the desk space of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four's Minitrue (the novel's ministry of propaganda). While working there he also formed a relationship with William Empson the literary critic and penned Animal Farm on the side. UCL is home to the George Orwell Archive, the most comprehensive body of research material relating to George Orwell anywhere. The collection encompasses manuscripts, notebooks and personalia which were presented to the university in 1960 on permanent loan by his widow, ten years after the author's death. Sonia Orwell presented it on behalf of the George Orwell Archive Trust.
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