He and his copodcaster Tabitha on the new ‘The Book Club’ podcast dismiss his abusive behaviour as his being “handsy” and the well attested sexual assault on his childhood friend Jacinta as somehow unfounded.
Extraordinary to ignore significant recent research like Anna Funder’s ‘Wifedom’ about how his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy was written out of his books by him, his life by his hagiographers and history by everyone who didn’t read the sources properly.
The assault on Jacinta left her with bruises on her hip and shoulder and torn clothing. She had to yell to get him to stop; this is not just being “handsy”.
This is a real sexual assault with evidence and testimony.
They neglect to give Eileen any credit for the poem she wrote at school called ‘1984’. They don’t mention her suggestion to make his political tract into a fable about animals. She was a very influential editor of his work. Her incredible courage in Spain when she saved lives in her role and he gave her no credit.
When she was ill - he disappeared and she died partly due to his neglect and her fear of spending too much of her own money on decent medical treatment. He totally used her and leeched her resources and then gave her no credit.
She was better educated than him and a powerful editor and tireless typist.
He left her alone during the adoption process - shockingly selfish.
On Jura he used people for anything he could get from them and nearly killed his own son and relatives on a crazy boat trip which was his plan and his responsibility. Completely deranged behaviour.
But the biographers cannot see him clearly despite all the evidence; He was evidently a monstrous person. That is relevant despite his being a brilliant writer. I care about his also being a fraud. That matters to me and it should matter to Sandbrook.
Of course Eileen might have fought for better treatment but Orwell could get away with it at that time.
Tolkien was a great writer and didn’t treat women like pieces of sh**.