OrwelHomeGuard

ORWELL'S HOME GUARD DAD'S ARMY

To Orwell Today,

I was looking for something, as I recently acquired the Everyman's Library edition "Essays" [George Orwell].

Your website came up and I read "Don't Let Colonel Blimp Ruin The Home Guard," which I've never seen before. What a great read. See ORWELL AIMS RIFLE AT COLONEL BLIMP

You sent me in the direction of ebay, where I obtained a like new copy of "George Orwell, A Life" by Bernard Crick, for less than $16.

I am a big-time Orwell fan. Your web-site is the most scholarly, academic web-site I have ever seen. Many, multi-thanks for your efforts. You must've been private-school educated... Like me.

~ Chris, M.B.A., M.A., A.B.
Lynchburg, Virginia

Greetings Chris,

Thanks double-plus much for your kind comments and great to have you as a reader and fellow Orwell-fan.

It's been four years since I posted that Colonel Blimp article and haven't gone back to it since then. But a year ago -- on the table in the lobby of the apartment building where I live -- there was a collection of CDs and DVDs for people to take if they wanted. The donation was from the much-loved manager of the building -- a typical Englishman who was always cracking jokes and had strong opinions on being British -- who had died suddenly from a serious illness. I sorted through them -- he was obviously a bit of a WWII buff -- and godcidently came upon DAD'S ARMY discs -- the classic BBC TV series depicting Orwell's Home Guard and about which I'd written in the Colonel Blimp article.

DadsArmyDVDcvr DVDDadsArmyDiscs

I hadn't had time -- or motivation -- to watch any of the "16 hilarious episodes" yet but upon receving your email I dug out the set and popped in the first episode -- THE DAY THE BALLOON WENT UP which was about the "inept platoon" trying to keep the BLIMP from escaping its tether.

Yes my writings are often scholarly and academic-like essays or papers one could submit at institutions of higher learning but it isn't because I was private-school educated. To be honest, the only thing I learned at school -- elementary and secondary -- was grammar and how to read and write. With those tools I pursued my own study and interpretation of history and everything else I cover on the website -- including the study of Orwell's writings and thoughts. I attempt, as Orwell instructed, to write as clear "as a windowpane" and that comes with practice and a passion to teach the truth in small bites -- and backing it up with references to sources and further study. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in CANCER WARD, a book that contributed powerfully to my search for truth -- "education doesn't make you smarter".

It's interesting that you're from Lynchburg, Virginia because, as a Civil War buff, that is a place whose battlefield I would love to visit. My study of the Civil War began after studying Lincoln which began after studying Kennedy -- my original point of contact for truth seeking. And my study of the Civil War led to my specializing in the life and times of George Armstrong Custer who fought in the first and last battles of the Civil War -- 1861 thru 1865 -- the final one ending there near Lynchburg. See Custer's First Last Stand and The Battles of Appomattox Station and Court House

I've been to the battlefield of Custer's Last Stand on June 25th, 1876 (the day Orwell was born in 1903) -- at Little Big Horn, Montana -- on the 140th anniversary -- and saw the re-enactment. I plan to share that experience in future articles.

If I ever go back to eastern USA (from western Canada where I live) I'd love to visit the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania and the Appomattox battlefield in Virginia -- near where you are in Lynchburg.

All the best,
Jackie Jura, September 2022

ORWELL'S TRIBUNE WAR WRITINGS

LINCOLN & KENNEDY AT GETTYSBURG

LINCOLN ASSASSINATION THEORIES and JFK ASSASSINATION PUZZLE PIECES

JFK TRUTHS & UNTRUTHS

ORWELL WHY I WRITE

ORWELL'S HOME GUARD DAD'S ARMY
OrwelHomeGuard DadsArmyDVDcvr
("a quasi-revolutionary People's Army")
Email, Sept 13, 2022

ORWELL AIMS RIFLE AT COLONEL BLIMP
BlimpCartoon1934 BlimpHomeGuard BlimpFilm1943
(rank & file rise up & shovel Blimps into dustbin)
watch Dad's Army: Room At The Bottom
Email/YouTube, Nov 1, 2018
ORWELLIAN GUN CONTROL

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
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