The Orwell Foundation

‘What I have most wanted to do… is to make political writing into an art’
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The Orwell Foundation is the home of The Orwell Prizes and The Orwell Youth Prize. We use George Orwell's work to celebrate honest writing and reporting, uncover hidden lives and confront uncomfortable truths – and, in doing so, to promote Orwell's values of integrity, decency and fidelity to truth.

What We Do

Welcome to the official website of The Orwell Foundation. From the corruption of truth to pervasive new technologies, and from poverty and inequality to the rise of political extremism, George Orwell's concerns are as relevant to the twenty-first century as they were to the circumstances in which his great novels were conceived. Though our prizes, events, workshops and resources, The Orwell Foundation aims to offer a platform for debate and discussion designed to appeal to the widest possible public audience, connecting with everyone to whom George Orwell and his writings are a source of inspiration.

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For young writers

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News and events

News

Twitter

Last week brought the sad news of the death of actor Ronald Pickup, whose portrayal of George Orwell in TV movie 'The Crystal Spirit' is still the definitive on-screen portrayal of the author. Pickup once named Orwell as his favourite role: bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…

About 6 hours ago from The Orwell Prizes's Twitter via Twitter Web App

Events

The Orwell Youth Prize 2021 – An Introduction and Q&A for Teachers

Wednesday 03 March 2021

16.00 - 17.00

Learn more about this year's OYP theme, 'A New Direction: Starting Small' and how our programmes can continue to meet the needs of teachers

Unreported Britain

Together with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), we are delivering the Unreported Britain project as one part of the work of the new JRF-sponsored Prize The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils.

Orwell resources

As the only website officially sanctioned by the Orwell Estate, we publish a wide range of resources by and about George Orwell, including our Webby-shortlisted Orwell Diaries blog, Orwell's most popular essays and a library of links to external and exclusive content.

Selected examples
SEE ALL ORWELL BOOKS

Sponsors & Partners

The Orwell Foundation is extremely grateful to its sponsors and partners. If you would like to find out more about supporting the Foundation, please contact us.

Orwell values

To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.

George Orwell
Proposed Preface to Animal Farm

George Orwell
2016-04-03T22:24:33+01:00

George Orwell
Proposed Preface to Animal Farm

To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.
Freedom of the intellect means the freedom to report what one has seen, heard, and felt, and not to be obliged to fabricate imaginary facts and feelings.

George Orwell
The Prevention of Literature

George Orwell
2016-04-03T22:29:50+01:00

George Orwell
The Prevention of Literature

Freedom of the intellect means the freedom to report what one has seen, heard, and felt, and not to be obliged to fabricate imaginary facts and feelings.
Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.

George Orwell
Why I Write

George Orwell
2016-04-03T22:33:10+01:00

George Orwell
Why I Write

Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.
When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

George Orwell
Politics and the English Language

George Orwell
2016-04-04T10:15:07+01:00

George Orwell
Politics and the English Language

When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
Intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face… If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear

George Orwell
Proposed Preface to Animal Farm

George Orwell
2016-04-04T10:15:57+01:00

George Orwell
Proposed Preface to Animal Farm

Intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face… If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear
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George Orwell

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