Just Finished Reading: Churchill & Orwell – The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E Ricks (FP: 2017) [270pp] 

It surprised me that two of the early 20th centuries icons never met. Although Orwell and Churchill ‘crossed paths’ - although never at the same time or place – they only read each other's works at a distance. Even more surprising, as the author points out, was the fact that we know of them at all. From an early age Winston liked to put himself into the middle of things, partially for the sheer thrill and (more importantly) in order to gain a public reputation that could be converted into electoral votes. He was in the thick of things – with bullets flying – on the Afghan border, South Africa (where he was captured and escaped from a POW camp) and Cuba. Interestingly, it was in New York 1931 (aged 57) where he was hit by a car and suffered several cracked ribs and a slashed skull. If the car had been going faster and the injuries had been worse then England would have been denied its iconic Prime Minister in its (and his) finest hour. Likewise, Orwell was shot in the throat (everyone in the area assumed he would be dead before they reached him or soon after) in Spain during the Civil War in 1937. Imagine a world without Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm or 1984. Would anyone even know who George Orwell was today?   

Covering the two greats' lives and their formative years, this quite excellent look how their joint opposition to authoritarianism (of BOTH extremes) shaped both their lives and the word we live in today (and indeed some of the very language we use to describe and think about it – imagine a world without the concert of Orwellian politics). Churchill was an anti-Fascist from the earliest days and spent his wilderness years vainly warning Britain (and by extension the Western Powers) about the rise of the authoritarian leaders in both Italy and Germany. Although Churchill was pleased when Germany was stupid enough to invade the Soviet Union, he already had great misgivings about Stalin and never trusted him. For Winston it was a clear ‘enemy of my enemy’ temporary accommodation. Orwell's journey was a little more complex. Although never a Communist he was most definitely ‘of the Left’ and felt the need to do something (other than write) about the fighting in Spain. Randomly allocated a position in an Anarchist division it wasn’t long before his direct experiences soured him to the Russian ‘advisors’ in the war zone and not much longer after that he was warned that both himself and his wife had been added to an effective ‘capture & kill’ list. It transpired that the true enemies of the Communists were not their Fascist foes but the more ‘politically dangerous’ Socialists and Anarchists.  

This was VERY well written (as you might expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner) and often honestly fascinating. If you’re interested what drove Winston Churchill so hard during WW2 and what underlay Orwell’s political beliefs and informed his later and most famous works, this is definitely the book for you. One of the highlights of the year. I’m looking forward to (finally) reading the authors book on the Iraq war.