To Orwell Today,
re: RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON ORWELL

I might have missed it but I didn't see Why Orwell Matters listed in your recommended reading section. I haven't read it myself but it's written by Christopher Hitchens, who is absolutely brilliant and one of the biggest Orwell enthusiasts there is.

Just thought I'd pass it along!

-Alison

Greetings Alison,

Actually, as I explained to a previous reader in HITCHENS NOT LIKE ORWELL , I'm not a fan of Hitchens, mainly because of the lies he's written about JFK and also because he approves of the USA/UK invasion of Iraq and says Orwell would too, when in fact Orwell would be totally against it.

But I have read Hitchens' book WHY ORWELL MATTERS (scanned above) and did find some parts of it very interesting. I didn't put it on my list of recommended books about Orwell because it's really just a light read, not in the same category as the other books there - which are full-fledged biographies and in-depth studies of Orwell's life and works.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

PS - Hitchens has so much access to the mainstream media in getting his writings published in books and magazines and being interviewed on talk-shows and addressing audiences of students on the speakers' circuit that he is someone young people especially are influenced by. And when Hitchens tells people that he is an authority on Orwell and knows what Orwell would think or say on a given subject - ie that Orwell would approve of the USA going to war on Iraq - he is knowingly misrepresenting Orwell and also dangerously misleading young people who form their war opinions from him. See Hitchens' Vanity Fair article for an example of HITCHENS-CAUSED DEATH IN A FAMILY

PPS - Also, brush up on your knowledge of what Orwell thinks about war in 12.Ministry of Peace and 11.Ministry of Plenty and 7.Systems of Thought, for starters, and also see my article IRAQ AFGHANI PHONY WARS