George Orwell and the Battle for Animal Farm

“This is the story of how George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, the mountain he had to climb to get it published, and the enormous personal tragedy which ran beneath.” In this exclusive new short film, Orwell’s biographer DJ Taylor and George Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, celebrate the 75th anniversary of the book’s publication by unpacking the extraordinary story behind the story, from the book’s initial rejection by several publishers (for reasons of political expediency) to the adoption of George and Eileen’s son, Richard, and Eileen’s unexpected death soon after.

“The two great crises of Orwell’s life, the professional and the personal,” Taylor explains, “are running together in the spring of 1945.” ‘Animal Farm: A Fairy Story’ was eventually published by Secker and Warburg on the 17th August 1945, and is widely regarded as one of the great political works of twentieth century literature.

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Happy (75th) birthday #AnimalFarm! Orwell’s satire of the Russian Revolution remains one of the greatest political works of the 20th century. In an exclusive short film, @djtaylorwriter and Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, unpack the story behind the story: https://t.co/YWuksgqB1H

— The Orwell Foundation (@TheOrwellPrize) August 17, 2020