Rhiannon Healey

In 1903, in India, Eric Blair was born, where he soon moved back to England with his mother at the age of one.

He and his family settled in Hemley-on-Thames, which was near London. He went to church school, and went to St Seprins, but did not like it there. At the age of 11, he had an article about WWII published, and eventually won a scholarship to Eton College, one of the best.

He learnt discipline and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He joined the military and went to Burma at the age of 19, where his book, Burmese Days was published. However no one believed what he wrote, and included how the Burmese acted hostile when he went over.

When he returned to Britain, there was a workers strike in which people protested about treatment and wages. By this point, he had also resigned from the Burma Police Force.

He also got pneumonia, and lung disease as he was a heavy smoker. Eric Blair was now broke and could only take what jobs were available, and he ended up as a dishwasher in a restaurant. After this job, he went over to France and tramped, which is when he lived the same life as tramps did to get a better understanding of their lifestyle.

After tramping, he returned to Britain, where he became a school teacher, and was popular with the students. This was when he started using the name George Orwell. His parents were glad that he changed his same, because they were embarrassed to be associated with him.

He married a woman named Eileen in June 1936, Herefordshire. Since his marriage, he was much happier and moved into a cottage with her. Despite the height problems within the cottage, they were both happy.

After his marriage to Eileen, Orwell went to fight in Barcelona in a militia against Franco. He fought with PUOM, a group rebelling against Franco and his supporters. However, people turned on PUOM as they believed the group were supporting Franco. Orwell was put in Aragon, where he was to fight from there.

In 1949, he wrote the book Nineteen Eighty- Four, a science fiction book that talked about the future. During fighting in Barcelona, he got shot in the back of the back of the neck where he had to go to hospital for several days. He also had Tuberculosis (TB), and when he recovered, he went to Morocco with Eileen.

In July 1939, when Orwell returned back to England, his father, Richard Blair had died. This was also the same time that WW2 broke out. He submitted his name to go and fight during the war, but was declared unfit for any kind of military service. His wife, Eileen became grieved and depressed as her brother, Lawrence had died over in France fighting during the war.

In August 1941, Orwell managed to obtain some work by working for the BBC, broadcasting biased news stories about the war. He met with H.G Wells, but the meeting dissolved into a row as Wells had taken offence at what Orwell had written about him. In October Orwell had a bout of bronchitis and the illness recurred frequently.

In 1950, Eileen had died. he had published about 130 articles, and employed a housekeeper to look after his son in the Islington flat. In May 1946 his sister Marjorie died of a kidney disease and he set off to live on the Isle of Jura.

Barnhill was overgrown and primitive, but the place appealed to Orwell. His sister, Avril accompanied him with a young novelist Paul Potts. Late on in July, his housekeeper, Susan Watson brought his son over. Tensions increased and soon Potts manuscripts were used to light the fire. This was the year that Orwell began his work on nineteen eighty-four.

During the winter he struggled to write his book, but made good progress through the autumn and spring. During that time his sister's family visited, and Orwell led a disastrous boating expedition which nearly led to loss of life and gave him a soaking which was not good for his health. In December a chest specialist was summoned from Glasgow who pronounced Orwell seriously ill and a week before Christmas 1947 he was in Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride, then a small village in the countryside, on the outskirts of Glasgow.

By July 1948, he had finished the manuscript of nineteen eighty- four. However in January 1949, he was in an extremely weak condition, and set off for a sanatorium In September 1949, he was to marry Sonia Bronwell. Orwell's wedding took place in the hospital room on 13 October 1949

His health was decreasingly rapidly and he was in decline. His plans to go to the Alps were soon cut short. His health declined again at Christmas, and on the early morning of January 21 st 1950, an artery burst in his lungs, and he died at the age of 46.