The Orwell Prize
‘What I have most wanted to do... is to make political writing into an art’
About Orwell
Enter the prize

Welcome to the official Orwell Foundation website, home of The Orwell Prize. The Orwell Foundation uses the work of George Orwell to celebrate honest writing and reporting, to uncover hidden lives, to confront uncomfortable truths and, in doing so, to promote Orwell’s values.

The Orwell Prize 2017 winners

   Book prize   

Citizen Clem

John Bew

Journalism prize

Fintan O’Toole

The Irish Times, The Guardian, The Observer

Exposing Britian's   
   Social Evils

Previous winners 2017 Shortlist

News and events

News

Twitter

Our Director Jean Seaton on @BBCWomansHour discussing Sonia Orwell (right now) twitter.com/BBCWomansHour/…

Last week from The Orwell Prize's Twitter via TweetDeck

Events

More events coming soon...

The Orwell Youth Prize

Inspired by its own ‘Big Brother’, Britain’s most prestigious Prize for political writing, the Orwell Youth Prize aims to support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers.

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

A library of works about George Orwell and his work including some exclusive material and links to external Orwell content.

Selected examples
SEE ALL ORWELL BOOKS

Sponsors & Partner

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

Orwell values

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+00:00

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
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+00:00

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.
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+00:00

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+00:00

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.
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+00:00

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.

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