Search Results for: why i write

Research! A Resource by Sujana Crawford

We asked four professional writers to create resources to help guide entrants through the process of researching, finding a form, starting to write and responding to feedback on an entry to the Orwell Youth Prize.

About me

Hello! I am Sujana. I write across different genres ranging from poetry and scripts to essays and reports. In my day job, I work as a UX Researcher. This mainly involves talking to people from different walks of life. Doing so enables me to better understand a situation or a problem, before working out (mostly digital) solutions.

My writing practice enriches the way I carry out my research, and more importantly, my research skills and tools really feed my creative writing.

My poems have been published in different anthologies and magazines, and I have read and performed my work at various festivals and open mics. This is my favourite part about being a writer, getting to share my work with an audience. I have also written scripts for radio (you can listen to my BBC Radio 4 play here) and stage. I even acted in one of my plays, as you can see in the picture! (Sujana is on the left in a red headband.)

I enjoy writing about nature and about the different experiences I have had such as traveling and working in different countries, motherhood, and friendships. I see research as very much part of my writing process, especially when I am exploring themes new to  me.


The value and importance of research

Spending some time learning about a topic helps you both widen and deepen your understanding. It makes your writing richer and enables you to be precise in your descriptions.

When I am in ’research mode’ I try and fully immerse myself in that world. What I mean by that is – if for example I am researching about apples, then I will likely do all or some of the following:

  • Eat an apple in the morning for a whole week, noticing and noting down everything I see and feel – colour, shape, taste, sound it makes when I bite into it, etc.
  • Find a way to learn about how and where apples grow and the different varieties, as well as how they have evolved over time.
  • Talk to friends about how they like to eat apples (raw or cooked, sliced or whole etc.)
  • Look up recipes about apples in cookbooks and BBC good foods.
  • Interview a neighbour who has an apple tree in her garden.
  • Visit a market to learn about the prices of apples.
  • Visit a garden centre to learn about different pests and diseases different variety of apples can get and how to treat them.
  • Use the Internet to learn about how apples are consumed in different cultures.

This kind of immersion enables me to widen the things I can say about a particular subject. It also helps me discover the necessary vocabulary and syntax, and often crystalises the understanding I already had. When I do begin to write afterwards, I am able to do so more confidently and precisely.

Researching for different forms

Research can feed into and support different forms of writing differently. When working on longer forms like essays or short stories, reading a book or an article, or talking to somebody with relevant lived experience, will help you get the facts right. It will also help you take your readers on a better journey (which is why we write, isn’t it?).

While working on a poem, on the other hand, you might wish to hone into something. More than in other forms, in poetry every word you use needs to own its place – each word needs to serve a purpose and add to your piece. As a result, your research will likely end up being more specific too. After some generic reading, my research here tends to be about finding the appropriate word and context to say what I want to say.

You will not use everything you research (but it will never go to waste)

Below I share the opening lines from my poem ‘Marshland Whispers.’

Having found her rhythm,
a snipe has taken to winnowing her secrets,
tales of silk, golden as a grass spine.

Did you know that the guttural sound made by wading bird, snipe, is called winnowing? I didn’t, until I read widely about this very shy species and visited a nature reserve to try and see them for myself (they eluded me, sadly). Ultimately, however, the only bit of research I used in my poem was the word ‘winnowing.’ That is not to say all the other research was wasted. Just recently, over two years of writing this poem, when writing about natural habitats, my old research on snipes came to good use. I don’t think anything ever goes to waste in a writer’s world!


Where to begin

Research can take many forms and what approach you take depends mainly on how much time you have and what tools you have access to. In today’s world, it’s easy to think asking Google is the obvious place to start. However, when my two children have a writing or research project, we start by reading a book together (as I do for my own projects). This often means a trip to our beloved local library!

What my children have found particularly exciting and helpful is asking our family and friends about things they have lived- or work experience on (e.g., talking to a neighbour who worked as a vet helped enrich my son’s story about a poorly cat). I will never cease to be blown away by just how willing and happy people are to share what they know. No amount of trawling YouTube or asking Google can compare to a good personal story

My top 5 research tips

  1. You do not need to do all your research in one sitting. Allow your mind time to mull over ideas. You can always return for some more research.
  2. Have a plan and a list of things you want to research before beginning. It is easy to get distracted and lose track of your work and time.
  3. Learn to keep notes of your research questions and learnings. You never know what you need to reflect on.
  4. Be careful when online and remember not everything you read on the Internet is true.
  5. Keep an open mind when researching: try not to go too narrow too soon.

Here’s an exercise to help sharpen your research skills:

Pick one idea from the list below (or come up with one yourself). Spend some time researching it, remembering to take notes. Then use your learnings to write a short story. Once you have done this, write a poem on the same theme.

Do you think you used your research differently for different forms?

Ideas you could choose from:

  • Winters aren’t as cold as they used to be.
  • Parents should always listen to their children.
  • I want to be the Prime Minister.

A classroom activity: Writing a research-based collaborative short piece

Pick a theme for the class to research and write about (I’ve suggested a few ideas options below). Then divide the students into 4 to 5 groups, ideally with at least 3 in each group.

Provide each group an allocated time and the responsibility to research a sub-theme of the main theme.

After the allocated time (this could be a min. of 30 mins or up to a week), bring all the groups back together and write a collaborative piece together – with each group contributing a sentence or line at a time. A short piece, such as a poem or short essay would work best.

Tips:

Provide research materials for the students such as relevant books, article print outs and pictures.

Encourage students to speak to people who had an interest or expertise on the chosen themes (this could be somebody in their family or a teacher at school).

When writing the collaborative piece, one option is to ask Group One to provide the first line or sentence, for Group Two to think of a second line in response to the first one, and so on.

Before you know it, the class will have created a new piece of writing together!

Possible themes

  • A local hero… sub-themes could include:
    • the local hero’s childhood
    • what deeds made them into a hero?
    • their significance today
    • similarly celebrated people in other places
  • Should we all be vegetarians? Sub-themes could include:
    • what are the consequences of animal farming?
    • what would happen if we all stopped eating meat?
    • cultures that primarily eat a vegetarian diet
  • Should pavements and cycle lanes be prioritised over main roads? Sub-themes could include:
    • evolution of transportation
    • cycle friendly cities around the world – what makes them different?
    • air and noise pollution
    • are there benefits to fewer people owning cars?

Thank you for reading this resource. We hope you enjoyed it and that it comes in useful as you write your entry to the Orwell Youth Prize! If you have any feedback on our resources, please email info@orwellfoundation.com.

Sujana Crawford is a poet, playwright, researcher and facilitator, whose work is driven by a fascination with people, places, traditions and folklore. She is based in Warwickshire.

The commission of these resources was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England as part of the Orwell Foundation’s Regional Hubs project.

Reporting Homelessness

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness encourages entries from anyone reporting on the issue, from those with lived experience of homelessness in all its forms to journalists shining a light on the problem and its potential solutions.

The prize is open to work first created or published between 1st April 2023 and the deadline of 31st March 2024. Entries can be in any medium other than books including video diaries, reporting, essays, and podcasts. For full eligibility details please see the rules, available here.

This year’s judges are radio and TV presenter Paddy O’Connell (Chair of Judges); firefighter, author and academic Sabrina Cohen-Hatton; Freya Marshall Payne, writer, researcher and winner of The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2023 and the poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay. The judges review every entry.

Down, Not Out

Our accompanying podcast series Down, Not Out, produced in partnership with the Centre for Homelessness Impact and the Prison Radio Association, is there to offer insight and inspiration, as well as all the information you need to enter the prize. In each episode host Paddy O’Connell speaks to guests with personal experience as well as experts in the field to explore experiences which often go unexplored in mainstream discussions of the issue, from the ‘hidden’ data around female homelessness to the challenges faced by young people growing up in care.

The full series is available to stream today wherever you get your podcasts.


About the Prize

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will be awarded for evidence-led reporting and/or commentary on homelessness in all its forms, including rough or hostel-sleeping, sofa-surfing, precarious and temporary housing and the fear of homelessness that comes with it. The Prize is sponsored and supported by the Centre for Homelessness Impact.

In Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), George Orwell’s vivid reportage combined evidence with empathy, describing the root causes of homelessness and poverty and their brutal impact. Crucially, he wrote about those on the receiving end of injustice with respect and dignity.

Launched in 2023, the ninetieth anniversary year of the book, we and our partners the Centre for Homelessness Impact want The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness to shine a light on new forms of homelessness including temporary and precarious housing, sofa surfing and beds in sheds as well as rough sleeping and hostel-dwelling.

Orwell portrays the people he meets, living in filthy, bug-ridden boarding houses and on the streets of Paris and London, as victims of circumstance, not culpable for their own misfortune or wretchedness. It is this spirit of writing that The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will recognise and reward.

We want the new Prize to celebrate evidence-led reporting and to focus attention on simple questions: What does homelessness look like in contemporary Britain? Why do we still have hundreds of thousands of people affected by homelessness despite decades of efforts to find solutions? What do we know of what works, to prevent people from falling into homelessness or to help them exit once they do? Is there any new thinking or promising innovation that evidence suggests may yield better results than current approaches?

Orwell believed passionately that the way in which an issue was described was as important as the topic itself. Evidence shows that in modern writing about homelessness, stigma, stereotypes and false narratives appear so frequently that they present a tangible barrier to public understanding of the problem. Our independent judges will look out for terminology that avoids implications of blame for the circumstances in which people find themselves.

Writing for the prize – additional guidance

Writing about and sharing your own experience or the experiences of those close to you is never easy, but it is especially difficult with an issue like homelessness. Entering a prize also comes with an added degree of uncertainty. Unfortunately, there is always the potential for disappointment.

We and our partners at the Centre for Homelessness Impact are committed to celebrating and promoting new writing and other forms of reporting on homelessness, and it is always a privilege to receive your entries. However, we would always recommend talking to a friend or someone you trust before deciding if taking part in the competition is the right decision for you.

This year, we are also taking some additional steps to ensure that entering the Prize is as clear, transparent and encouraging a process as possible. If you are submitting new work that has not been published elsewhere, you can opt in to receive personal feedback on your entry when the results are announced. Alternatively, you can choose only to hear from us if we have good news. Otherwise, we will be in touch with all entrants in late May, when the shortlist is announced, to confirm the results.

As in 2023, we are also committed to publishing a selection of outstanding previously unpublished entries. If your piece is chosen for publication, we will be in touch before the final shortlist is announced. By entering the Prize, you are giving us permission to publish your work, but we will always do our best to confirm that you are still happy to do so before publication.

Accessibility

In addition to the online form, a written entry form is available for those without access to the internet. Written entries and completed entry forms can be sent to: The Orwell Foundation, Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT.

If you or your organisation would like to receive an application pack please get in touch at info@orwellfoundation.com. Please remember to include a consent form if you are entering on behalf of the entrant.

Thank you for your interest in the Prize – we wish you the best of luck.

Professor Peter Davison

Professor Peter Davison

The Orwell Foundation is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Peter Davison, one of the pre-eminent authorities on the life and works of George Orwell, and, with the assistance of his late wife Sheila, Orwell’s long-time editor. Davison’s The Complete Works of George Orwell, which runs to twenty volumes, was first published in 1998.

In a personal tribute (published in full below), the Foundation’s Director Professor Jean Seaton, said: “Peter’s extraordinary contribution was the make the modern Orwell possible.”

The Foundation sends its condolences to Professor Davison’s family.

The Foundation is privileged to host a number of resources featuring Professor Davison and his work on our YouTube channel, including an extended interview on his book ‘George Orwell:  A Life In Letters’ and an appearance at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2010. Professor Davison’s memoirs, written in 2020 are available on the Orwell Society’s website and Peter’s collection of Orwell-related books and other material, donated by him to the Society, is on permanent loan to the Museum of Wigan Life.

Professor Seaton writes:

Only Peter Davison could have recognised Jacintha Buddicom, leaving a solicitor’s office from an apparently insignificant picture taken by a passing street photographer in 1927. Buddicom had just signed away her illegitimate daughter to an uncle and aunt. The baby was not Eric Blair’s, though Blair (Orwell’s real name) had brought back an engagement ring for her when he returned from Burma. She would not, could not, see him as she was expecting the child. Blair believed that she would not see him because she had resented his bungled physical approach before his departure for Burma. Only Peter could identify why this picture mattered, but only Peter brought a special humanity to the interpretation – it was the young, distraught women’s body language that had alerted him to look more closely at the picture. In doing so he put together a poignant piece of the emotional jigsaw around George Orwell’s early life (and Jacintha’s). It was an eloquent identification.

Peter Davison has sadly died with his sons around him. His darling wife and helpmeet Sheila died several years ago. He was a super scholarly sleuth. The scale of the intellectual mastery breathtaking. Peter’s extraordinary contribution was to make the modern Orwell possible.

Peter edited with a tenacity, comprehensiveness, and sheer love the complete works of Orwell. Without this extraordinary work of scholarly compilation, exquisitely edited and contextualised, Orwell’s work would be fragmented and dispersed, and the range of the writing and the development of his thinking would be lost. Davison allows any reader to discover the milieu, the moment, and the development of every fragment of Orwell’s writing. It is a remarkable achievement. Seeing the works to publication was in itself an epic story.

Peter was a very sweet, modest man who combined warm human communicativeness with a splendid capacity to hunt down and hold onto details. He brought to Orwell studies a dedication to accuracy that matched the author’s own. I first met him when my husband (who died many years ago) wrote an introduction to Orwell’s essays on England. There was a hilarious supper in a trendy Notting Hill restaurant on the night the book was launched. Peter ordered fish and it, somewhat surprisingly, arrived with banana. The table, as I recall, riffed on Orwell and bananas.

Peter was loveable and has, in a formative way, made the Foundation’s work possible. We send our condolences to his children and grandchildren and celebrate a special life, so well lived, that contributed so much to public understanding of important things.”

Jean Seaton, 18th August 2022

Women and Climate Change – Ruby Kalayil-Peacock

“The remarkable achievement of the text is to correctly, clearly and captivatingly expose the correlation between historically systemic and modern issues; and how, despite that, women around the globe continue to play an indispensable role in solving them.” – Dan Bernardo

Every day, 37-year-old Zeitu from Ethiopia walks five miles, lugging enough water to support her seven children. [1] Lately, her 15-year-old daughter Zahra has joined her, often missing school as a result. Zeitu and Zahra are by no means alone: millions of women in many rural communities are responsible for maintaining the household’s water, energy, and food supply, as well as childcare. Women make up 50-80% of food production worldwide, yet own only 10% of land. [2] As a result, women make up 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion poor, [3] so are more affected by threats to land and natural resources, and therefore climate change. Moreover, they have less access to technology that would help them to adapt to climate change, and are less involved in decision making, so are unable directly to affect change concerning the environment. 

After the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 90% of fatalities were women and children. In many cases, women, impeded by clothes or unable to swim due to ideas around modesty, could not flee. [4] This tragedy exemplifies how increasingly common extreme weather events will disproportionately affect women. During climate disasters, women’s responsibilities mean that they must work more, and harder, leaving less time for education and earning income: women are rendered unable to migrate and seek refuge. Furthermore, when struggling financially, families may remove girls from school to work or get married. [5] 

After Hurricane Katrina in the USA, violence from men towards women rose by 98% [6] – just one example of how climate disasters have complex social effects on women which intertwine with their domestic lives. Women’s health often declines after a disaster, due to reduced access to adequate maternity care, or spending long hours in drought conditions that cause heatstroke, and women become more vulnerable to domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking – a concept coined ‘climate violence.’ Men feel they should protect women, and frustration at their failure to do so leads to violence. As the economy suffers after a climate disaster, women struggle more to find jobs; nine in ten countries have laws preventing women from the same economic opportunities as men, including banning women from factory jobs, working at night, or getting a job without permission from husbands. [7]

However, this is not to say that women are utterly helpless in these situations. These expectations imposed on women in many cultures can be harnessed in times of climate disaster. Skills involving water storage, food preservation, and management of natural resources can, with adequate female representation in power, be invaluable. Said representation is sadly minimal, with only one quarter of people brought onto TV to talk about the climate in 2020 being women, [8] and even fewer women of colour. There is, obviously, no evidence to suggest that women are less competent in decision-making roles – quite the contrary; women often recognise the risk around climate change’s proposed ‘solutions’ more. Indeed, white males have been proven to possess a lower risk perception, so are likely to take bigger, more dangerous risks: the ‘white male effect’, [9] a phenomenon proved by the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WeDo). Perhaps unsurprisingly, carbon dioxide emissions per capita are lower in nations with more women in government, and a study of the European parliament showed that women are more likely to support environmental legislation. [10] 

Moreover, many women internationally have been given agency to recover from and prevent issues arising from climate change. Activist Charlot Magayi established the Mukuru clean stoves initiative to help women in Kenya replace cooking stoves with greener alternatives, and women in Africa are heading the initiative Solar Sister, which helps communities build small-scale solar grids to be more in control of their energy source. The Barefoot College, set up in India, trains women to be solar engineers to, again, control their own energy production. The latest G7 summit had a section on gender and climate change, and charities like ActionAid are working with women to empower them into leadership roles. International financing funds now require systems to include women in programmes- for instance, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, which prioritises women farmers. [11] 

Women all over the world are empowering others and overseeing change. Kenya’s Dr Wangari Maathai was the first African woman and environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. While nowadays Greta Thunberg is a familiar female face of the climate activism movement, few remember that Maathai, an African female environmentalist orchestrated the ‘Green Belt movement,’ for women to plant and look after trees. Thanks to this movement, tree nurseries have been built, fifty-one million trees planted in Kenya alone, and women trained in things like beekeeping. [12] 

Another African woman who has made a huge impact is Isatou Ceesay, who founded the One Plastic Bag recycling movement in Gambia, and a project that produces bags made of recycled waste and gives many West African women jobs. Alongside these stories are American marine biologist Rachel Carson, who helped ban DDT and to establish Earth Day, and sailor Emily Penn founded eXXpedition to carry out women-only plastic pollution expeditions. [13] Yet still, there are dozens of unsung female heroes of environmental activism, whose voices are rarely heard. In the USA, two-thirds of those who organise climate strikes are women, [14] and female scientists in Africa are bringing their knowledge of agriculture to laboratories and research departments. 

The only thing that can solve any of these problems is true gender equality, and there are still countless examples of a gender divide evident in any environmental negotiations. For example, the UK leadership team for COP26 was originally 100% men; disparities in vaccine access worldwide meant that who was able to attend COP26 was unjust. [15] Things need to be tackled at the fundamental level: inequalities in job opportunity, domestic roles, and education need to be eradicated. A step towards this should entail women-only policies in any development schemes, and more female representation in decision-making. We must work together to build a ground-level network that stretches worldwide, to ensure that no-one, man, woman, or child, is left behind as the world changes irreversibly every day. 


1 Women and children walk up to 20,000 steps a day for water, reveal WaterAid and Wimbledon Foundation’, Water Aid UK, 9th July 2018 

2 Balgis Osman-Elasha, ‘Women… In the Shadow of Climate Change,’ UN Chronicle, accessed 10th March 2022  

3 Ibid. 

4 How To Save a Planet, ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’,  Spotify podcast, 6:29, September 2021,  

5 Climate Change and Gender’, Action Aid UK, updated 17th November 2021,  

6 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 9:05

7 ‘Climate Change and Gender’, Action Aid UK 

8 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 17:41

9 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 15:14 

10 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 19:43 

11 Joe McCarthy, ‘Understanding Why Climate Change Impacts Women More Than Men’, Global Citizen, 9th March 2020, 

12 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 22:51 

13 ‘Beyond Greta Thunberg: the Women Fighting Against Climate Change’, Acciona, accessed 10th March 2020 

14 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 41:58

15 ‘We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality, We’ll Prove it to You.’, 44:51


We asked our 2021 and 2020 Orwell Youth Fellows to interview our new 2022 winners and runners up. Below, 2021 runner-up Marnie McPartland interviews Ruby Kalayil-Peacock about the importance of research and the inspiration behind her essay ‘Women and Climate Change’. You can also read Marnie’s 2021 article ‘Equality in Education’ here.

  1. You support your argument with multiple interesting sources. How did you go about your research and what do you think such evidence adds to the piece?

I mainly conducted my research online, using Google, and particularly the websites for the United Nations and ActionAid, both organisations committed to combatting gender inequalities and climate change worldwide. I felt it was important to include plenty of concrete, quantitative evidence in my piece, as it seems that often issues surrounding climate change and gender inequality can feel rather abstract and distant, and I wanted to ensure that I made it clear quite how grave these problems are. There are people who still deny their existence, and so I felt I should prove it using factual evidence.

  1. What inspired you to approach the climate crisis from the angle of women’s involvement?

I first heard about the increased effects of the climate crisis on women from a podcast that I was listening to, and was deeply surprised that I had never heard this topic being discussed before. I decided to write this piece to bring about awareness, and thought that if I approached the subject of the climate crisis from a more social angle, not simply an environmental one, I could convey how deeply human beings are affected by what can otherwise feel like a rather abstract concept; as we in the Western world do not often feel the direct effects of the climate crisis, we do not always fully grasp its severity.

  1. Do you think your conclusion that inequality in the crisis ‘need[s] to be tackled at a fundamental level’ is achievable?

I do feel that tackling inequality between the sexes at its root, and therefore greatly reducing the increased effects of the climate crisis on women, is achievable. Indeed, I feel it is the only truly effective way of dealing with this ancient issue. A lot of ‘action’ being taken against sexism can be seen as simply papering over the cracks when it is too late, and I think that governments worldwide should make it their mission to tackle disparities in education and job availability between the sexes. I concede that changing deeply-engrained attitudes and practices is by no means easy, but it is certainly achievable.


Find out more about all our Orwell Youth Fellows here and buy their climate crisis zine, Axial Tilt here.

Enter the 2023 Orwell Youth Prize here.

The Conundrum of the Fossils – James Lomax

“A parable, set in the 19th century, in which a naturalist builds a wall to save a forest, but gets little help. Nicely written, wry and fluent.” – Professor Michael Jacobs

January 14th 1884

It is with great ardour that I write these words. At long last, it seems that my plight has been answered. A Mr Jonathan Percival from the Dorset County Council has allowed me to have an audience with the board concerning the fossil problem I have been raising awareness on. I hope my proposal will finally convince them to take action on this issue. In a few days, events may at last go in my favour.

January 18th 1884

The day has been confusing, to say the least, but nevertheless I have achieved my goal. Upon entering the elegant hall that the Council resides in, I was greeted by Mr Percival and the other distinguished gentlemen, who had given me half an hour to detail my ambitions to them. I informed them of the situation of the fossils: how half a century of excavation has left the landscape covered by the remains of creatures from aeons past, how vulnerable these fossils are to weathering and the action of the waves, and how significant, nay essential, they are in revealing more of the rich history of life on our planet. An entire lost ecosystem could be gone forever if these processes continue at the same rate. As I spoke, I tried to weave passion in my words, aiming to rally these gentlemen like a military commander before a major battle.

Mr Percival looked in the direction of his fellows, each gentleman giving a brief nod. “We thank you for your speech,” he told me. “Clearly this is a complicated situation, and we all see that action must be taken. Would you care to enlighten us as to what you have planned?”

I prepared myself to deliver my proposal. “The biggest threat to these fossils is the slow yet continuous rise of the ocean. In a mere few years’ time, they may be lost to the waves, and with them, knowledge of the world before mankind. Therefore, I propose a short wall, further down the beach, which will protect the fossils for another few decades, giving my colleagues enough time to extract them and take them to museums, where they shall be treated with the care they deserve.”

Before consulting the other gentlemen, Mr Percival asked, “This extraction process is expected to last a few decades?” 

“Oh yes,” I answered him. “Great caution must be taken to avoid damage to the fossils. Once one is broken, it can never be fixed.”

“Of course. These fossils must not be damaged. So. What does the board say?” Some gentlemen whispered among themselves. Most simply nodded again. One man raised his voice and asked, “How will this wall change the appearance of the beach?”

“The wall shall be made of rock, taken from elsewhere, in order to blend in with the coast,” I responded.

“Good,” the gentlemen said. “You must understand that tourism is a significant, nay essential, part of the local economy. I would hate to see it sacrificed for the sake of some- for the sake of these valuable remains.”

As there were no further questions, Mr Pervical addressed me again. “It appears we are unanimous. You may build your wall for the sake of these fossils. You must take care, though, to keep it in line with the natural theme of the coast.”

“And now,” he continued as I left, “it has been confirmed that a member of the royal family will soon holiday in our esteemed county. We must ensure that they are given a-”

His voice was drowned out by the frantic speech of the other board members, each eager to be heard above the others. I fear that such a lackadaisical triumph as mine is no triumph at all. Yet, approval was what I desired, and approval was what I received. In the morning I shall begin construction.

January 19th 1884

I enlisted the help of a few locals to help me begin mapping out where the wall would go. Amazingly, none of them were aware of the danger the fossils were in, and all agreed that it was noble of me to do all I could to save them. They did regret to inform me that an innumerable amount of other tasks will prevent them from giving me any further aid, but they wished me all the best in my efforts. I am heartened by the faith people have in me. I do not work at this wall on my own. After all, doing what you love is never truly work.

March 10th 1884

The sea wall approaches completion. My funds are growing thinner, but I have never had to pay any other workers, so my situation could have been far worse. While I have presented a donation box, it is only too understandable that much of the population simply cannot afford to fund me right now, which is why my own fortune is being used to supplement the humble grant given by the Council.

Every morning I walk to my store of rock, and, carrying as much as I can in my trusty wheelbarrow, trudge down to the beach. There, I deposit the wheelbarrow’s contents and begin adding to my barrier. It brings me great joy that it is keeping back some of the weaker waves.

Sometimes I spy a few people watching me work from afar. I am pleased that they are as invested as I am and eager to see the wall being created in order to save these magnificent fossils.

Yet this endless toil is beginning to affect me. There are times when I trundle my wheelbarrow down the beach, and stop and catch sight of the fishermen out on their boats, or the shopkeepers opening for the day. Then I gaze at my wall, a meagre, shallow thing, and the awesome and terrible waves crashing against, spraying the precious fossils with droplets of surf, and for a split second the truth of what is actually happening sinks in. Then I notice somebody watching me and continue walking, anxious for them to see me working away, and secretly hoping that another set of footprints will follow mine down to the shore.


We asked our 2021 and 2020 Orwell Youth Fellows to interview our new 2022 winners and runners up. Below, 2021 winner Jude Leese interviews James Lomax about metaphor and allergorical fiction, and the characters in his story ‘The Conundrum of the Fossils’. You can also read Jude’s 2021 winning poem ‘Work Experience as a Young Campaigner’ here.

  1. With there being an abundance of allegorical fiction out now regarding climate change, why did you decide upon fossils in the 19th century as your metaphor?

I chose fossils in my piece to show how much information and knowledge can be taken from the natural world. The fossils are of animals long dead and gone, but they’re still full of information from the nature of evolution to the nature of extinction. If we can learn this much from life that is no longer around, how much can we learn from life that we still have the chance to save?

  1. How did you plan out the individual features and characters of your parable? Do they all represent specific kinds of people or institutions which you feel are preventing us from saving the planet?

All the characters each represent different attitudes held by different people. The narrator is the one who understands the crisis and wants to do all they can to slow it but finds themselves relatively alone. Mr Percival is the public figure who gives an impression that they care but doesn’t really, at least not as much as about other, less important, issues. The board member that raises a question about tourism represents the kind of person primarily occupied with money first and the environment second. Finally, everyone else represents the general public – they know about the crisis, and some of them care, but it’s not very important and only a minor aspect of their lives overall. When writing this piece, I wanted to exaggerate all these different kinds of people to essentially call them out and make them sound rightfully ridiculous.

  1. The narrator of your piece could be interpreted as either optimistic or naïve. Which do you think it is?

I can’t say they’re optimistically naïve, can I? I wanted to make the narrator quite a pathetic character in their little efforts to do their bit, just to show how much the climate crisis needs many people all working together to combat it, instead of one person who is trying their hardest but probably won’t accomplish much. Their attitude is of one who expects support that will never come and I hope this makes my piece a bit more moving.


Find out more about all our Orwell Youth Fellows here and buy their climate crisis zine, Axial Tilt here.

Enter the 2023 Orwell Youth Prize here.

2054 – Eleanor Mead

“A dystopian science fiction short story set in Paris and on an unnamed shoreline in the global South. Experimental in form, the writing achieves a disturbing dramatic tension.” – Professor Michael Jacobs

25-10-2054

Northern Hemisphere, Grigny, Paris

She looked at the empty containers. After taking them from the storm cellar she had just left them sitting on the counter, dreading what their vacant bodies meant. When the cellar got down to the dregs then it was time to replenish, else face the inevitable reality of starvation.

Today she’d have to go outside. With a new face mask delayed by Neoquick’s trademark slow delivery service, she would have to brave the air alone.

The girl downed another glass of water before optimistically slathering on sunscreen, a thick layer of white to cover her flushed skin. She flashed a smile to whoever may be watching through the front camera before she flicked to the Paris air alerts. She studied the screen, not bothering with the flat’s windows. It may look clear and sunny out there but she knew better. Everyone did.

The app indicated the air quality had decreased dramatically over the last hour; the Capital had issued a red warning: STAY INSIDE. She sighed and went to close the phone, not wanting to see another ad, but without failure, a propo from the rebellion popped up.

Today the hackers had replaced the normal image of smiling Parisian farmers working from the kindness of their hearts for their twisted truth: 

the Capital’s propo is sent out daily to ease the minds of the rich who had condemned their fellow Frenchmen to death. To ease the mind of sinners. Many don’t care as so many of the Capital’s farmers are immigrants, escaped from the uninhabitable land of the equatorial belt. Unable to speak French, unlike yourself, no work is available to them and now they can’t even get necessities-

She shut off the phone, bored of their ludicrous proposal.

Rolling her eyes, she flopped onto the easy clean sofa that was positioned directly opposite the kitchen. She wasn’t entirely sure why it was designed this way but it was always too hot for her to consider moving it. Tugging her knees into her chest defensively, she attempted to bypass her reality.

She buried her face in her hands, the darkness giving her space to think. Her mother had gone out this morning, this she knew without even checking. Her mother would be out late into the night, working hard in order to allow her to order things on Neoquick. But since wages had dropped again, ordering on the web was impossible. She didn’t have a choice.

Removing the ice, she rose and headed to the door. She didn’t bother checking her phone, knowing the warning would only work to dissuade her from the task at hand. Taking the scarf from beside the door, she tossed it around her neck before gathering the containers.

After the Crisis had begun its steep incline, the Capital stepped in. No single-use plastics would be tolerated, as if this would close up the disintegrated mess of the Ozone layer. No one tried to fault the stupidity of this plan from either the illusion of hope or the reality of what would happen if they ever did.

The girl pressed her hand against a square panel hidden in the surface of the wall, listening for the hiss of the door release. As the iron door slowly rolled open there were three short beeps before her morning pill shot into her mouth. Dutifully she swallowed it, without a second thought, and tightened the scarf over her nose and mouth before stepping into the hallway.

The apartment block was as hot as everywhere else in the suburbs. There were rumours of air conditioning in central Paris, where the elite lived; spread through whispers that have no discernible source and without a defined source there can never truly be truth.

She stepped out into the sweltering heat and doubled over, unable to breathe. The air was hot and heavy, clogged with the pollution of her ancestors who she silently cursed, her eyes watering as grit poked at them.

She tried to cough the grit out of her, tying the scarf even tighter. Hoping and praying that this time wouldn’t be the time, that today wouldn’t be the day that Marjorie Morel died.

 

Southern Hemisphere: off the grid

Frances’ head broke the warm surface of the water, rivulets of the foul smelling substance rolling down her face. She threw her spear and morning catch onto the shore before dragging herself to meet it.

After the Capital had banned practically everything, Frances had had enough of watching others slowly fade away on the rations that had been provided. She had taken her life into her own hands, fuelled by the rumbling pit in her stomach. With no family or friends left, she headed back down the rocky mountain trail but nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her return.

Her home entirely sunk beneath the dark surface of the swollen Indian Ocean. It wasn’t something easy to get used to and even after a week Frances wasn’t sure if she ever could.

Returning to her home was preferable to complying to the Capital and blindly following their soldiers. The water submerged most of their cameras and short circuited the rest and with the soldiers all deployed on the Capital’s relocation missions, she couldn’t have been safer.

After the Capital’s warnings she had avoided the ocean at first, chewing on bark to alleviate some of her gnawing hunger. Then she decided enough was enough and used a sharp stone to fashion her first spear.

Frances lay back, letting her hair pool around her as she let the sun dry her off. In these moments the stifling heat was a little more bearable. As she took a second to breathe, she thought about today’s hunt.

It had been much harder than usual: the water harder to move through, the jellyfish harder to spot. Today she’d had to settle for lumping handfuls of salty seaweed into the shell she used. The shell was likely her greatest success, it was large and green with a curve that made it a great bowl. Whatever creature that had called it home was long dead so she had little qualms in taking it from the ocean bed.

Sitting up, Frances reached over to her Capital-issued water bottle. Other than the clothes on her back, it was the only thing she had kept as its distilling function allowed her to drink

from the sea. She wasn’t entirely sure of all of the science behind it but she knew some of the basics. It was designed to remove salt, cells of dead marine animals and carbon dioxide among other things.

She took a sip of the water, it was gritty but she was used to it. After she had knocked the bottle, one of the mechanisms had been damaged and it didn’t work right but it had kept her alive so far so she wasn’t complaining. Frances looked over at her pathetic pile of seaweed, pushing a ringlet of readily dried hair from her face. Then she heard it-

The unmistakable buzz of helicopter blades.

Fear clenched her chest, stopping her heart as the realisation hit her. She hadn’t been careful enough and now the Capital was coming for her. 

Foregoing the collection of her meagre morning catch, Frances ran. Darting through the trees, she wound her way uphill trying something they wouldn’t expect. The helicopter persisted.

The machinery was faster than her, skimming across the top of the canopy as the soldiers peered down at her. Soldiers dropped to the forest floor, boots landing with heavy thumps.

She only noticed their chase as the helicopter darted away, inspiring her to pick up the pace though she couldn’t work her aching limbs for long.

Darting to the right she heard them crashing around behind her. The pounding of her heart in her ears was too loud for her to realise they were close enough to hear her breathe.

Feeling herself begin to slow, she willed more air into her lungs, more strength into her pumping legs. It wasn’t enough.

The soldier pounced: his solid weight driving her face-first into the ground as he chanted the Capital slogan, chilling her to the core.

“Tell Tale Tit, your tongue shall be slit; and all the dogs in the town shall have a little bit.”


We asked our 2021 and 2020 Orwell Youth Fellows to interview our new 2022 winners and runners up. Below, 2020 winner Hugh Ludford interviews Eleanor Mead about her tips for budding writers and the inspiration behind her story ‘2054’. You can also read Hugh’s 2020 winning story ‘You Are What You Eat’ here.

  1. Is the grim future your piece presents something you could see coming to pass in the coming decades, given the date you chose?

Grimness is all I can see for the future as of late. The climate crisis will not be abateing any time soon, as no policies can truly support the future science foresees for us. My story exaggerates the 2050s as a reminder of what is to come if we fail to change our ways in the face of our rapidly heating planet.

  1. What would be your one tip for a budding writer?

Stories don’t always come to you as you’d expect, taking some time away from your work can sometimes be the best thing for your story.

  1. Which other writers inspire you?

When writing dystopian pieces I tend to find inspiration from authors such as Margaret Atwood and Christina Dalcher. Both are feminist icons who write stories that view the female experience through a different lens. I would like to emanate their ability to shine a light on feminism in my own work.


Find out more about all our Orwell Youth Fellows here and buy their climate crisis zine, Axial Tilt here.

Enter the 2023 Orwell Youth Prize here.

Research

Whether you’re writing an article, an essay, a story, or even a poem, it’s important to know your facts. This stage of the pathway aims to help you begin finding out more about the topics which interest you, and identify reliable sources of information.

We asked writer and researcher Sujana Crawford to tell us a little about her own research methods – read her tips for getting started here.

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’

Writing is a creative process, but a bit of research is useful whatever form you’re writing in. You might come across surprising facts, untold stories, new perspectives, shocking statistics – all material which will help your work.


Let’s get the facts in order!

Whenever you’re researching a subject, you will find that some sources of information are more reliable than others. Some may not be reliable at all. Here are some links to advice on ways to critically examine the information you encounter, especially online.

  • The BBC’s ‘Real News‘ have lesson plans to help you critically examine what you find online, and work out what is real. They also have helpful resources on reporting generally. BBC Bitesize also has this useful article and video with tips for spotting fake news online.
  • For Sixth Form students and teachers, this series of quick online lessons introduces fact-checking and source-checking.

Like The Orwell Youth Prize, The Orwell Prizes exist to encourage good politically-engaged writing and reporting. Why not research the work of a previous Orwell Prize winner, or read an interview with an Orwell Prize nominated journalist over on our Substack?


Where to start? (Reading, watching and listening) 

Below we’ve collected some articles and programmes recommended by members of the team and our Youth Fellows to help you get started.  You don’t need to start here (and you certainly don’t need to read all the suggestions!) but have a browse and see if you can find anything which helps develop your ideas further, or take them in a new direction.

Children and Freedom

Listen to the Ted Podcast ‘Should Kids Have More Freedom’ – listen here and read the transcript here. It’s all about different parenting styles and the freedom (or lack of freedom) children have in different areas of life, and in different countries and cultures.

Freedom Rising

Watch a video or two from this TedX Video series Freedom Rising. From the Arab Spring to the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, this is a powerful series of stories of resistance against dictatorships and oppression.

AI and Freedom

Read this Forbes article about the freedom which AI could bring – and for the other side of the argument, read this Global Citizen article about how AI is affecting our freedoms and human rights.  Read this report from UNICEF about what AI is and how it could affect you (and watch the short video about what young people around the world think about AI).

The Climate Crisis

Earlier this year, the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) issued a Joint Declaration on the Climate Crisis and Freedom of Expression. They also issued this short statement, on how freedom of expression and media is crucial to tackling the climate crisis, and must be protected.

The Right to Roam

In Scotland, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe, the public have something called the ‘right to roam’ which allows anyone the freedom to enter public or private land to exercise or relax. Activists are now campaigning for the same freedom in England. Read this interview with one such activist, Nick Hayes, and check up on how the movement is progressing in this article.

Freedom and Homelessness

‘Being homeless means not being free’ – this article from The Conversation explains how being homeless compromises people’s freedom. This is also explored in many articles, videos and stories from the finalists of the 2024 Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, including these reports from Daniel Hewitt at ITV News and Vicky Spratt at The i. 

Freedom of Expression

Read about what Freedom of Expression is, how it is being threatened around the world, and how Amnesty International are working to protect it, in this article on their website.

Evan Gershkovich is an American journalist who was imprisoned in Russia in 2023 under accusations of espionage. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a mere 2 day trial, but luckily was freed in a prisoner swap between Russia and the US on the 1st of August, 2024.

Here is a video from the Wall Street Journal summarising the fight to free Evan.

And a podcast from his friend and fellow journalist Pjotr Sauer talking about the prisoner exchange that eventually resulted in his freedom.

Evan Gershkovich attended the Orwell Prize Ceremony in 2022 as the guest of his friend Polina Ivanova who was shortlisted for the prize, meaning the Foundation has closely followed his bid for freedom. Jean Seaton, director of the Orwell Prize, wrote him a letter whilst he was imprisoned, as did the Orwell Youth Fellows.

Here is an article from Polina about Evan’s imprisonment, and the value of sending him letters.

If you could write a letter to someone imprisoned, what would you say? One of Amnesty International’s biggest campaigns is their Write for Rights campaign, where they ask people to write letters to prisoners of conscience all around the world – find out more here.

Freedom of Speech

In essays like ‘The Freedom of the Press’, George Orwell famously warned that “unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban”. For Orwell, writing in the Second World War, literary censorship in England was “largely voluntary”.

In recent years, freedom of speech – and associated debates around “cancel culture”, the “culture wars” and content moderation on social media – has become an increasingly contested topic, especially online and at universities in the United States and the UK.

In July 2020, a much-publicised open letter in the American magazine Harper’s, signed by writers like Margaret Atwood and J. K. Rowling, criticized what the authors described as a growing “illiberalism” on both the political left and the political right. The letter provoked, and crystalised, a fierce debate, with others arguing that we should focus more on “who holds power” in intellectual and political discussions.

In this speech, Observer columnist and author Kenin Mailk argues that “the freedom to offend is not an add on to freedom of expression”, while in this feature the Pew Research Centre looks at the history and current usage of the phrase ‘cancel culture’ and brings together a wide range of perspectives from members of the public in the US: the survey found “a public deeply divided, including over the very meaning of the phrase’.


Poems

Lady Freedom Among Us by Rita Dove , a poem about the statue of ‘Freedom’ on the US Congress building.

Freedom by Langston Hughes

Freedom by Jill McDonough

Nuns Fret Not At Their Convent’s Narrow Room by William Wordsworth – a sonnet (14 line poem) about how sometimes having limits on your freedom (like a line limit on a poem) can actually be helpful and comforting.


Prize-winning Inspiration

Below are some previous Orwell Youth Prize entries which we think might inspire you to think about this year’s theme…

Love Behind Opening Doors by 2024 Winner Florence Alsop is a short story about an older same-sex couple who gain the freedom to love each other openly following the 1967 law change.

Testament by 2024 Runner Up Yeva Paryliak is a short story set in an imagined near-future Ukraine, where the freedom to speak Ukrainian has been taken away.

Wonderland by 2024 Winner Frankie Mordecai is about the freedom (or lack of freedom) for young people to feel safe in their neighbourhood.

Men’s Shoes by 2023 Winner Lara Wong is a poem about freedom (or lack of freedom) for self-expression and gender identity.

Misconception by 2023 Winner Amelia Roles is a short story about the overturning of the right to abortion in the United States, and about the lack of freedom to make choices about one’s own body.

Obedience by 2023 Runner Up Marianne Lee is a poem about longing for the freedom of birds, to fly away and choose their own path.

New Hair, Who Dis? by 2021 Winner Faith Falayi is a spoken word poem about the limits on freedom of self-expression and cultural identity imposed by school rules.


Got your facts in order? Next, head to our Find Your Form page to start thinking about which form will allow you to best express your ideas…

Inspiration

The Orwell Youth Prize takes its inspiration from the author, journalist and essayist George Orwell. Orwell wrote from his own experiences and observed the social injustices and political happenings of the world around him.

Orwell also wrote in language that was clear, concise and compelling for his audience. We encourage you to follow George Orwell’s example: to write about something that matters to you, and that you want to draw to the attention of others.

Here we’ve put together some prompts inspired by Orwell’s writing and different kinds of freedom, to help you to start thinking about the theme. When you’re ready to start researching, click here to browse our list of potential reading, watching and listening about freedom, and lack of freedom, in our world today.


FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” – Nineteen Eighty-Four

 “If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.” – Freedom of the Park

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – Preface to Animal Farm

“The imagination, like certain wild animals, will not breed in captivity.” – The Prevention of Literature

  • What does freedom of expression mean to you?
  • How free are we to form our own opinions about the world?
  • Should there be any limits to freedom of speech?
  • Who is free to speak, and be heard?
  • How important is it for your imagination to be free?

FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS

“That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better” – Nineteen Eighty-Four

“If a man cannot enjoy the return of Spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him?” – Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

  • Can you be happy without being free? Or free without being happy?
  • Does freedom always lead to happiness?
  • Has technology made us freer?

FREEDOM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

“The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.” – Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

 “Because, after all, what is a road like Ellesmere Road? Just a prison with the cells all in a row. A line of semidetached torture-chambers…” – Coming Up For Air

“There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.” – Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

  • How does the environment we live in shape our freedom?
  • Who or what puts limits on our freedoms?
  • How free do you feel in day to day life?
  • How do the freedoms we have compare to those of the natural world?
  • Is nature free?

FREEDOM AND POWER

 “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys… I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle.” – Shooting an Elephant 

“Freedom is slavery” – Nineteen Eighty-Four

“Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine.” – Homage to Catalonia

 “’The stars are a free show; it don’t cost anything to use your eyes.’” – Down and Out in Paris and London

From JULIA by Sandra Newman, published 2023 (This book is recommended for older readers)
The below quotes are taken from a blog which Newman wrote for the Orwell Foundation, Finding Julia, about her experience and motivations for writing the novel. Here, she talks about the different meanings of freedom for Nineteen Eighty-Four‘s male protagonst, Winston Smith, and the female protagonist, Julia:

“Freedom for Winston is speaking the truth; freedom for Julia is putting on scent and showing herself to her boyfriend in a pretty frock.”

“Out of view of the telescreens, Winston is able to be himself with Julia; this perhaps is what love means for him. But Julia is a woman, and one who has never known a world without Big Brother. Being honest with another person—being known—has no place in her experiences or her desires.”

  • How does the kind of society we live in affect our freedom?
  • How are freedom and equality connected to one another?
  • What happens when our ideas of freedom come into conflict with each other?
  • Do social pressures and expectations take away our freedom?
  • What does it mean to feel free?
  • Can we be free as individuals, when others aren’t?
  • How is someone’s job or wealth linked to their freedom?
  • Can you truly be free without money?

Feeling inspired? Head on to the Research page for some tips on researching your entry – and to explore how writers and journalists are tackling our theme today.

Notes On Being Black. – Laurell Jarrett Anderson

“This writer conveys an important message through a strong and personal tone. Their research skills and attention to detail contribute to an overall excellent piece, exploring racial issues within a modern context. With a particularly powerful analysis of racism online and in the media, it’s a piece which must be read and understood by everyone using such platforms.” – Jessica Johnson

I had come across a book called ‘Loud black girls’ last year and being so intrigued by the title alone, I purchased it straight away. It told me that “Being a loud black girl isn’t about the volume of your voice- and using your voice doesn’t always mean speaking the loudest or dominating the room.”[1] I was reminded of the stigmatization that came with being a black girl and found myself repeating ‘that’s so true!’ or ‘that’s happened to me!’ as I read each page. The black community shares so many of the same experiences and relate to each other in so many different ways, despite the irony that we are often talked about as if we are one person. We live in a society that has shown us how white people stay in the spotlight while black people are kept behind the curtain, their talent and hard work going without credit. So many years have gone by, yet most of the same issues that black people faced around discrimination and racism back then, are the same today. Despite the protests, laws and even the Black Lives Matter movement, issues that we faced over 70 years ago are still rife in today. Here are some notes on being black that I think are worth listening to.

‘Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.’
The media is something that touches all lives in some way, so heavily influenced by what we see and read in everyday life, including social media. Apart from being so eager to find out what celebrities are up to online, there’s a much darker and more damaging side to being so easily exposed to what we see. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmuad Arbery, Elijah McClain and many other innocent black lives lost due to racism and police brutality, have highlighted the systematic racism that prevailed not only in America, but all parts of the world and a lot closer to home. There is a lot of distressing content in the news and videos that are shared online, often without any warning. “Staying away from socials just to avoid hearing the blood curdling agony in George Floyds voice again and again.”[2]- This was what singer, actress and businesswoman Rihanna posted last summer in support of justice for George Floyd and other black citizens who have died. Videos like these circulated on the internet, making it hard to escape from the devastating murders that were happening in America, and also had a big impact on our mental health and wellbeing. Seeing black people persecuted, arrested and abused all the time is traumatic. More can and must be done to identify and abolish racial hatred within the police force, as well a safer way of spreading awareness of police brutality and murder in the media that is cautious and understanding of black peoples mental health, because as said by Will Smith: “Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.”[3]

‘Appreciation not appropriation’
Whilst racism and hate crime is an obvious act of prejudice, there is so much else happening that has been normalised. For example, the commedical and ridiculing representation of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) by non-black people and ‘blackfishing’ online, the phenomenon of non-black influencers and public figures using bronzer, tanning, Photoshop, or even cosmetic surgery to change their looks to appear black or mixed race. One time I read online that people were debating whether or not saying ‘black people’ to refer to, well, black people, was offensive or not. The problem with this is that people are assuming the word ‘black’ has negative connotations in the first place, adding to the problem even more. These not so important twitter debates, shifts our focus onto less relevant news and activism. There is so much more behind a word. The way we present ourselves is so much more than just a hairstyle. The appropriation of black women in particular is further established by celebrities spending fortunes on huge lips, skin tanned too dark and having surgery that can now give them unrealistically wide hips. The standard physical attributes of a black woman have been popularised and colonized by white women who had once oppressed black women for their natural features. American TV series like ‘The real housewives of Atlanta’[4], explicit music videos targeted at the black community and other forms of popular culture have also shamelessly pioneered the ‘black woman’, depicting us as loud, aggressive and hypersexualised, just for entertainment.

‘You’re not what we’re looking for’
In the past, there has been nowhere near as much representation for people of colour interested in cosmetics or hair compared to the western beauty standards that celebrate ‘whiteness’, in fact, this can still be seen today. A message that has probably been drilled into every black girl’s head is that “you’re going to have to work even harder than everyone one else because you have two strikes against you- your gender and race.” I often find that as a black girl, everything we search up about ourselves has to be marked: ‘Black girl hairstyles’ or ‘Black girl makeup routine’. When I was younger, I was given the rare beauty magazine for black women- that was only sold in black hair shops. Once a month. I was also the only black girl in my class at primary school (until one other girl joined in year 5) so people would always touch my hair and ask me why I didn’t just straighten it to fit in. I share my experiences with many black girls all over the world, but this goes a lot deeper than just magazines and childhood memories. It’s compounded by seeing brands and publications that have historically excluded and marginalized Black people, yet now share messages of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Where was this solidarity when Black people were applying for jobs? A study by the centre for social investigation at Nuffield College found that minority ethnic applicants had to send 60 per cent more applications to get a positive response from an employer than a person of white british origin. These results were compared with similar field experiments dating back to 1969, revealing that this type of discrimination has remained unchanged for over 50 years. [5]

‘This world does not move without black creativity’
More emerging black artists, creatives, engineers and scientists are pushing through the industry barriers and making their voices heard. Although we are tired of not seeing enough black people in executive roles, and the systematic disenfranchisement that exists within these industries. Not enough has been done to support black people into executive roles in the creative industry, even though black culture is unquestionably one of the most popular and sought after ‘aesthetics’ amongst mainstream media, from music to fashion and art. Since the Black Lives Matter protests more people have woken up to the reality of how the black community is not, and has never really been, represented or credited in mainstream brands/ businesses. The societal realisation of how black individuals go on to achieve despite the prejudices and institutional racism they encounter, has resulted in the mass emergence of ‘Diversity and Inclusion programmes’ that in progressively diversifying their business by allowing the ‘best’ black candidates to occupy the same roles that dismissed them in the first place. We have always been silenced and stereotyped, preventing us from getting executive roles for years. We have been labelled as the ‘angry black girl’ at school and always had to run that extra mile in order to be given the equal opportunities, whilst constantly being pulled down by white privilege. This is an evolving conversation, and it requires evolving education.[6] It’s now 2021 and young black children who are interested in art, history, sports, fashion, science or engineering need to be able to see successful and affluent people in those industries who look like them, in order to be inspired and achieve. So how can we move forward? Well, we can begin by understanding and recognising the exploitation that black people still face within the media for profit and entertainment, enabling the promotion of black culture to become more well known as something positive. Secondly, give black people the jobs and platforms so that they can achieve and earn just as much as their white counterparts, ending a cycle of career deprivation and unemployment. This world does not move without black creativity [7], so it’s about time we start appreciating it.

REFERENCES

1. Loud Black Girls: 20 Black Women Writers Ask: What’s Next? (1 October 2020)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slay-Your-Lane-Presents-Black/dp/000834261X

2. Rihanna Laments ‘Blood Curdling Agony’ of George Floyd’s Death (30 May 2020)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rihanna-george-floyd-death-1007883/

3. Will Smith: “Racism Is Not Getting Worse, It’s Getting Filmed” (3 August 2016)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-smith-colbert-race-relations-obama-politics-sings-summertime-916816

4. The Real Housewives of Atlanta (2008) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1252370/

5. NEW CSI REPORT ON ETHNIC MINORITY JOB DISCRIMINATION (21 January 2019)
https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/new-csi-report-on-ethnic-minority-job-discrimination/

6. “Racism Is A Global Issue”: Edward Enninful On The Importance Of Cultivating An Anti-Racist Agenda (1
June 2020) https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/edward-enninful-racism

7. #blkcreatives (pronounced hashtag Black creatives) was created by Melissa Kimble to uplift Black creatives
+ remind us of our creative freedom.(17 June 2020) https://blkcreatives.com/about-us/

A Small Thing – Anya Edgerton

“Witty, charming and, most importantly, real. The author captured a moment in time and translated it into an essential and honest conversation our society is having right now.” – Dan Bernardo

INT. SCHOOL HALL – DAY
In a school hall, there is a circle of chairs. Variously
slumped and sat on these are 6 students around age 16, and a
teacher.

 

PANS TO:

 

KAYCEE, with unkempt hair and an unassuming smile, sits with
a grubby-folded-up piece of paper in her lap, sitting on her
hands.

CLARA has her hair in a ponytail and sleeves rolled up, and
bright blue hearing aids. She is sprawled out on the chair,
but in an intimidating way.

TAYLOR has their hair in bunches and rolled up blazer cuffs,
and hold a piece of paper with blue scrawls all over it,
their legs neatly crossed underneath the chair.

AMELIA, with a concise bob and optimistic demeanour, sits on
the chair backwards, straddling it. Her blazer is adorned
with badges, for bands, political movements and squirrels.

MAY, with dark hair and eyes that flit around, and a half-
endearing, half-annoying habit of saying everything like a  question, sits with her arms and legs crossed, as if trying
to shrink.

ISLA, very long red hair, and many bracelets and bands on, is
the only one without a jumper or a blazer. She sits leaning
forward, one cheek smushed into a fist.

Finally, the TEACHER: a woman in her 20s, warm,
understanding, won’t take any rubbish, cross-legged.

 

TEACHER

So who’d like to start?
Anyone? Or should I pick someone…
(points finger playfully)

MAY (O.S.)

I’ll start??

 

PANS TO:

 

MAY, is tightly gripping a piece of paper with deep fold
marks in it. She fidgets a little.

 

MAY (CONT’D)

(she reads, shakily)
Wanderer’s Nightsong I, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe.

 

CLARA groans and slumps forward, head in her hands. The
TEACHER raises her eyebrows at Clara, who goes quiet. MAY
stops, and watches nervously, like a cat at a ping pong
match. TEACHER gestures for MAY to continue.

 

MAY (CONT’D)

(a little quieter, without
much rhythm)
THOU THAT FROM THE HEAVENS ART,
EVERY PAIN AND SORROW STILLEST,
AND THE DOUBLY WRETCHED HEART
DOUBLY WITH REFRESHMENT FILLEST,
I AM WEARY WITH CONTENDING!
WHY THIS RAPTURE AND UNREST?
PEACE DESCENDING
COME, AH, COME INTO MY BREAST!

 

Beat.

 

TEACHER

(with a reassuring smile)
Thank you, MAY, that was lovely. I
think CLARA might have heard it
before?

 

CLARA’s a little sheepish.

 

CLARA

No… it’s not that.. just… we
always have to study the work of
very posh and very dead white men
and metaphors I can’t understand…
It just doesn’t feel…
(motions as she struggles
to find the word)
relevant.

 

That hangs in the air for a beat. Flickers of agreement in
the eyes around the room.

 

MAY

(rapidly)
I’m really sorry, I, it, was in the
library… and I just, I thought it was nice.. I’m sorry-

TEACHER

(interrupting, warmly)
No need to say sorry, MAY! I asked
you to bring in a poem you liked
and you did just that.

 

MAY offers a weak smile.

 

TEACHER (CONT’D)

But… Clara has a point.
Sometimes, we hear a lot of the
same… voices. Anyone got anything
not by a ‘very posh very dead white
man’?
(laughs)

ISLA

I’ve got Warning by Jenny Joseph.
You know, ‘when I’m older I’ll wear
purple’… Jenny Joseph is a bit
dead, though, so…

AMELIA

(abruptly)
I have that poem from the
inauguration… Amanda Gorman, The
Hill We Climb? Amanda Gorman is
definitely not dead, or white, or a
man… she might even be president
one day!

TAYLOR

That’s very… political, though…
I mean… not everything is politics-

AMELIA

(overlapping with Taylor)
Poetry is political!

 

Beat.

 

TAYLOR

But people write about their
personal lives, and love, and
nature, and they’re not
political… that… that’s just
small things.

 

They look at the TEACHER. She gestures for them to continue.

 

TAYLOR (CONT’D)

Do you think that everything in
life’s political? Even the small
things?

AMELIA

Yes… yes I do.

 

TAYLOR sighs.

 

TEACHER

Taylor, what did you bring in?

TAYLOR

I brought in June Jordan’s Poem for
My Love. It’s beautiful, and not
political.

TEACHER

Well… it could be argued that
June Jordan’s work was very
political – she was a bisexual,
Jamaican-American poet who wrote
about gender, race and
representation, amongst other
things.

TAYLOR

But it’s love! Just because you’re
an oppressed person shouldn’t mean
that you have to always be
politically engaged!

AMELIA

That’s privilege – when your mere
existence, let alone your equality
or rights, is not inherently
political, or a protest.

TEACHER

(shrugs)
You both make good points…
Kaycee? What about you? What’ve you
got?

KAYCEE

Oh!
(fumbling around with
paper)
I… brought… an A.A. Milne poem.
The guy that wrote Winnie the Pooh
I love Winnie the Pooh – I love
Eeyore. Anyways, it’s a poem in one
of my little sister’s books I read
her, Daffodowndilly.

TAYLOR

See! Daffodils and Eeyore aren’t
political!
(turning to AMELIA)

AMELIA

Well, A.A. Milne was a white man,
so he had the luxury of being not
political, I guess?… I don’t
know.

 

A smug look from TAYLOR. The TEACHER observes this, brow
furrowed, then renews her smile, turning to CLARA.

 

TEACHER

Clara, you haven’t told us what
poem you’ve got?

CLARA

(suddenly diminutive)
Oh, no, it’s rubbish… everyone
else’s is so… they don’t wanna
hear mine, I mean…

TEACHER

(smiling encouragingly)
Come on! I asked everyone and that
includes you.

CLARA
(spilling out, quickly)
My Wi-Fi broke and I, I didn’t have
any data and I was too scared to go
to the library…

AMELIA

(half-shocked, half-
laughing)

You? Scared?

 

TEACHER shoots her a sharp look. She looks down, sheepish.

 

CLARA

(sharp intake of breath,
rapidly)
I wrote my own poem.

 

Beat. AMELIA’s eyebrows raise, and any sheepishness is
replaced by earnest. CLARA sees her interest and takes
courage from it.

 

CLARA (CONT’D)

(gesturing to AMELIA)
Writing is an act of protest,
right?

 

AMELIA nods.

 

CLARA (CONT’D)

I figure my own poem could be the
most… relevant one I’d find. Even
if it’s a small thing.

 

CLARA takes a deep breath, and raises the piece of paper to
eye-height. Her mouth opens to read. Cut to black.

On Keeping a Time Capsule – Jennifer Yang

“‘An incredibly memorable and thought-provoking piece, reminding us how starting small begins with a human connection to someone or something. The writer perfectly demonstrates the sense of disconnectedness that looms over all of us, but shows that by re-developing our relationship and emotional connection with objects, we will once again re-grow our connection to those around us.” – Jessica Johnson

When they’d sold the house, they’d thrown away their ‘impractical possessions’
along with it — outdated ration tickets, traditional Chinese paintings, and old stamps.
My heart lurched. Slow panic. My grandparents had just left my treasures with food
straps. An irreversible action. Soon a new family would move in — a mechanical motion,
an insignificant click in the grand gyres of time. It was as if they had never been there
at all: their indistinct chatters, smoke from cooking, evaporated into plain air, so
simply, dismissively, cruelly. Their new twenty-first floor flat is tidy, modern, and
efficient.

My grandparents are not alone. It seems natural to leave old things behind as
civilisation moves forward tirelessly, but our consistent pursuit of the new and the
advanced has, in some ways, deprived us of appreciation for who we really are. We
want to show we are following the direction of the masses– technology, convenience,
minimalism — so we are constantly buying things and throwing them away, just to
keep up with the flow. We are gradually adopting an ‘ending is better than mending’
mentality where we’ re losing patience for our items.

This is a dangerous mentality — the way in which we treat our items might evolve
into ways in which we treat others. Trendy things are, by their nature, short-lived and
disposable. Abandoning these items seems justifiable. We no longer invest in any
emotional connections with these items because it’s too effortless to buy another one.
Then, is that why we’ve become quick-to-judge, impatient, and unwilling to spare our
precious time for others? In the end, what have we been rushing after and what
remains important to us?

That’s when one returns to the embrace of a time capsule for comfort — a
refrigerator for unchangeable memories dwindling in the absurd flow of time. I’ve
never met anyone who keeps a time capsule, and I can’t help but wonder who engages
in this outdated idleness. Those who would keep a time capsule must have a
melancholic temperament, an inescapable longing for things that are bound to decay,
and a scrupulous mind that takes every miniscule item into account. They might be
accused of being hoarders, as they are so reluctant to clean their already-brimming
drawers.

For me, a time capsule is a brilliant realm of old pages, bronze bell, and broken
shards of memories. These items have long lost their practical uses, but they still
remain as testimonies of 20th-century China. The bronze bell, say, intricately carved
into the shape of a roaring tiger, was given to me by my grandfather. He wore it
around his neck as a child, for the ringing bell would remind his busy parents (probably
preparing dinner for their huge family) that their son was just playing in the longtangs
(narrow streets between neighbourhoods in Shanghai), and thus probably not lost or
kidnapped. I’ve never participated in that part of history, but I can visualize it: wisps
of smoke wafting out of the shared kitchens, mingling with the laughter of children at
play. Such is the power of time capsules — they relate you to something seemingly
distant yet familiar. In my time capsule, there’s an item that stands out to me the most.

The beaded mouse, a 串珠老鼠 (in Chinese), was given to me by an old man in
a care home. He was highly intelligent and curious — eighty odd years had not
bleached his passion for Maths challenge questions. But for him as a young boy, the
path to university was made impossible — re-education through forced labour has made him a factory worker. His job was to make beaded decorations — vases, cupmats, small animals. As he aged, he developed a leg injury and needed care-takers; his wife had passed away and his son did not have enough time to take care of him. Then he was put into this care home.

‘Here’s a gift for you,’ he said, placing the beaded mouse into my palm,
‘superfluous stuff, really, they’re everywhere.’ The old man had a smile borne out of
genuine care; his hands were surprisingly warm on that chilly winter day. Then I
realised he had been lonely. One or more years without a visit from his preoccupied
son in this care home, with those red numbers flashing poignantly on electronic clocks
from one second to the next. The old fellow would vomit next door. The caretaker
removed his sick. The caretaker served his glutinous lunch. Then evening would ensue.
He longed for that delayed visit as he finished another beaded mouse. My beaded
mouse.

I could never quite capture what I felt that day. The colour of the mouse’s plasticky
beads would always intensify all of a sudden, as if reminding me that those wrinkled
hands have sewn time, memories, history, longing together, into a domestic,
‘superfluous’ mouse. Like all other mice, it occasionally lets out a strident squeal to
remind me it’s lonely, just like its creator.

The demographic crisis in China will bring more populated care homes in the
future, and even the most dispassionate mind would grieve at how painfully silent
these care homes are. Meanwhile, our obsessions with trendy yet disposable items
reveal our lack of patience for anything associated with the past. In the process of
doing so, we gradually, unconsciously lose patience for each other, and we stop
thinking of others.

Perhaps, one way for us to hold onto each other is to keep a time capsule. A simple,
tangible box that stores the memories and emotion that seem increasingly rare as we
evolve into more efficient creatures. It might be slightly absurd to see how our topics
of interest have changed drastically over time, but time capsules can show us
something more surprising: how we’ve participated in shaping those changes. And
when one discovers how easy it is to connect with another seemingly unapproachable
member of society, one begins to have more patience with the rest.

This year’s Orwell Youth Prize winners start small – and point in a new direction

The Orwell Foundation can today reveal the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize 2021, after young writers from across the UK responded to the theme ‘A New Direction: Starting Small’.

From the conservation of Norfolk’s wetlands to the poetry of political campaigning, this year’s winning writers were deeply engaged with the local environment. Our winners and runners-up used personal experience, observation, and imagination to address social issues like racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and inequality – and suggest new directions for change.

For this year’s entrants, in a world that can often feel too impersonal, ‘starting small’ also meant treasuring and translating individual experiences and memories, from a magpie on a neighbour’s roof, to keeping a ‘time capsule’ of family heirlooms.

This year, the Youth Prize also asked every entrant to suggest the ‘one positive change’ they would most like to see in their lives. Answers were ‘inventive, bold and optimistic’, seeking to solve issues from racial and gender inequality to climate change.

Far more than just a prize, The Orwell Youth Prize is a project which aims to give something back to everyone who takes part. Through individual feedback from our network of volunteers, we support every young person who enters to develop their creative and critical writing.

And by seeking out new audiences for young writing, and by reflecting back our entrants’ collective concerns, we aim to make young people’s priorities part of the national conversation.

In 2021 The Orwell Youth Prize received poems, short stories, prose, essays, journalism, screenplays, game designs, speeches – and everything in between. Visit the Orwell Youth Prize website and social media or click on the links below to read each entry and hear responses from writers, journalists and campaigners.

Winners receive a cash prize and a copy of Orwell’s entire works and winners and runners-up will all be invited to take part in the Orwell Youth Fellows programme.

Senior Winners

‘Work Experience as a Young Campaigner’ – Jude Leese (Poetry)

‘The Quiet Revolution’ – Max Baker (Fiction)

‘Two for Joy’ – Isabella Rew (Poetry)

‘New Hair, Who Dis (Dear Mrs Johnson)’ – Faith Falayi (Poetry)

Senior Runners-up

‘Mending the Safety Net’ – Ruby Alexander (Essay)

‘A New Direction: Starting Small’ – Marnie Rauf (Fiction)

‘Notes on Being Black.’ – Laurell Jarrett Anderson (Journalism)

Junior Winners

‘It’s Not Your Fault’ – Katie Sherley (Essay)

‘A New Direction: Starting Small by Creating Norfolk Wetlands‘ – William Walker (Essay)

‘On Keeping a Time Capsule’ – Jennifer Yang (Essay)

‘A Small Thing’ – Anya Edgerton (Screenplay)

Junior Runners-up

‘Equality in Education’ – Marnie McPartland (Journalism)

‘Why?’ – Varscha Arul (Essay)

‘The Voting Booth’ – Charlie Owen (Fiction)


Our judges

Each entry was read by at least two assessors, and the final winners were chosen by the 2021 judges Adam Cantwell-Corn, Naush Sabah, Jessica Johnson, and Dan Bernardo.

Our partners and sponsors

‘A New Direction: Starting Small’ was funded by ‘Rethinking Poverty: The Webb Legacy‘, and George Orwell’s son Richard Blair. The Orwell Foundation is grateful to everyone who has made this year possible, from entrants to volunteer readers, teachers, schools and community groups, and all our partners and sponsors.

About The Orwell Youth Prize

The Orwell Youth Prize is an annual programme for students in year 8 – 13 (or equivalent) culminating in a writing prize. Rooted in Orwell’s values of integrity and fairness, the prize and the activities around it introduce young people to the power of language and provoke them to think critically and creatively about the world in which they are living.

Contact us

The Orwell Youth Prize will return in 2021-2022! If you would like to know more about any of the Foundation’s activities for young people, or are interested in working with us as a partner, school, teacher or volunteer, please get in touch with us at admin@orwellyouthprize.co.uk, and mark your email FAO Jeremy Wikeley (Programme Manager).

The Orwell Youth Prize 2021: Winners

We can now announce the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize 2021: ‘A New Direction: Starting Small’ 

Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you to everyone who took part this year and trusted us with your writing.

By seeking out new audiences for young writing, and reflecting back all our entrants’ collective concerns, we aim to make your priorities part of the national conversation.

You can read each entry, hear from the winners themselves and read responses from writers, journalists and campaigners by clicking on the individual links below. We will also be posting highlights on our social media throughout the afternoon.

Each entry was read by at least two assessors, and the final winners were chosen by the 2021 judges Adam Cantwell-Corn, Naush Sabah, Jessica Johnson, and Dan Bernardo.

Judge Dan Bernardo, founder of Playtra Games, had the following message:

 

This year, we also asked every entrant to tell us the ‘one positive change’ they would most like to see in their lives. Answers were ‘inventive, bold and optimistic’, seeking to solve issues from racial and gender inequality to climate change.

We will be sharing some of the most original and inventive responses on our blog and social media in the coming days and weeks, as well as interviews with this year’s winning writers, curated by the Orwell Youth Fellows.

‘A New Direction: Starting Small’ is sponsored and supported by ‘Rethinking Poverty: The Webb Legacy‘, and George Orwell’s son Richard Blair. The Orwell Foundation is grateful to every young person, teacher, volunteer, school and community group who got involved, and all our partners and sponsors, for making this year possible.


In 2021 The Orwell Youth Prize received poems, short stories, prose, essays, journalism, screenplays, game designs, speeches – and everything in between. The winners were:

Senior Winners

‘Work Experience as a Young Campaigner’ – Jude Leese (Poetry)

‘The Quiet Revolution’ – Max Baker (Fiction)

‘Two for Joy’ – Isabella Rew (Poetry)

‘New Hair, Who Dis (Dear Mrs Johnson)’ – Faith Falayi (Poetry)

Senior Runners-up

‘Mending the Safety Net’ – Ruby Alexander (Essay)

‘A New Direction: Starting Small’ – Marnie Rauf (Fiction)

‘Notes on Being Black.’ – Laurell Jarrett Anderson (Journalism)

Junior Winners

‘It’s Not Your Fault’ – Katie Sherley (Essay)

‘A New Direction: Starting Small by Creating Norfolk Wetlands‘ – William Walker (Essay)

‘On Keeping a Time Capsule’ – Jennifer Yang (Essay)

‘A Small Thing’ – Anya Edgerton (Screenplay)

Junior Runners-up

‘Equality in Education’ – Marnie McPartland (Journalism)

‘Why?’ – Varscha Arul (Essay)

‘The Voting Booth’ – Charlie Owen (Fiction)


The following pieces were also highly commended: 

Joe Pierce – A Way Out (Junior)

Hannah Bush – Think twice (Junior)

Anouk Wood – How to Fix a Broken Planet: Terrestrial Maintenance for Dummies (Junior)

Tilly Heath – Born The Souls who Settle in the Soles of our Shoes (Junior)

Benjamin Yu – Little Brighton (Senior)

Jamie Chong – Walking Home in a New Direction (Senior)

Nathaniel Tompkins – Explained, but not Understood (Senior)

The Orwell Prize winners of Political Writing and Political Fiction 2021 announced

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021, sponsored and supported by Richard Blair and A. M. Heath, has been awarded to Summer by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton), the fourth and final book in her Seasonal Quartet. Written and published at great speed last year, Summer captures our time with great acuity, and is hopeful and furious in equal measure. Winter and Spring were previously shortlisted and longlisted for the prize, in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

The winner of the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Writing is Between Two Fires:  Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa (Granta). A series of beautifully-written pen-portraits of fascinating individuals – TV producers, priests, human rights activists and more – trying to thrive in contemporary Russian, many of whom are little-known to a Western audience, it is the Moscow-based journalist’s first book.

Both winners receive £3,000, and will be invited to take part in a winners ceremony later in the year. In videos released online today, both authors accepted the award virtually: Ali Smith recorded her piece in front of the Orwell mural on Southwold pier in Suffolk, while Joshua Yaffa dialled in from Moscow. Jean Seaton, the Director of the Foundation, said:

Like Orwell, both our winning authors this year are invested in the individual heart and minds’ negotiation with the pressures of their society: be it Britain heading into the 2020s, or the last two decades of Putin’s Russia. Joshua Yaffa has found an extraordinary new way of looking at Russian life, and the decisions and compromises made by those who want to make a difference, while Ali Smith’s ground-breaking project, her deft storytelling and sharp ear all make her a thrilling choice for this year’s Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. We are grateful to the careful work, and graceful discussions of the judges. And we also want to thank Richard Blair – Orwell’s son – for his generous support and interest in this prize.”

Ali Smith will be the special guest on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week, 09.00AM on Monday 28th June.


SUMMER BY ALI SMITH (HAMISH HAMILTON)

The judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction are: Delia Jarrett-Macauley (chair), former winner of The Orwell Prize for Moses, Citizen and Me; Andrea Stuart, author; Bea Carvalho, head fiction buyer at Waterstones; and Mark Ford, professor at University College London and author. They said:

The conclusion to Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet seals her reputation as the great chronicler of our age. Capturing a snapshot of life in Britain right up until the present day, Smith takes the emotional temperature of a nation grappling with a global pandemic, the brink of Brexit, heart-breaking conditions for refugees, and so much more. It will serve as a time-capsule which will prove to be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the mood of Britain during this turbulent time.”

Ali Smith, speaking next to the mural of Orwell at Southwold Pier in Suffolk, said the following about the news:

I am so happy to be awarded the Orwell Prize for political fiction.

Orwell’s fiction understands the acute difference between the politics of art and the artfulness of politics. His fiction demonstrates that the power of language is mighty, and that this might is life-changing, world-changing and world-forming; and that language wielded for political power alone will reduce us all to a kind of fodder for powers that be or powers that want-to-be, while the core power of art and of the arts is always expansive, dimensionalising, liberating, complex, and concerned with revealing the human condition and revitalising and re-empowering the human dimension.

 “What I have most wanted to do” he said, … “was to make political writing into an art.”  The place where these two things meet can’t not be a place of humane – and inhumane – revelation.  To me, that’s what the word Orwellian means.  This, and that the structures of our arts, the shapes they take, will always make visible the structures by which we’re living, and who controls the language of the narratives we’re communally telling ourselves, and the workings of the narratives by which we’re being delineated as individuals and as a people.

 That’s why the past and future visions of his fiction will always be timeless, and why the Orwell Prize for political fiction really matters.  Big thank you.


BETWEEN TWO FIRES: TRUTH, AMBITION AND COMPROMISE IN PUTIN’S RUSSIA BY JOSHUA YAFFA (GRANTA)

The judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Writing are: Anand Menon (chair), Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London; Angela Saini, award-winning journalist and broadcaster, and author; Richard Ekins, Professor of Law and Constitutional Government at the University of Oxford; and Rosemary Goring, author and columnist with the Herald and the Sunday Herald. Commending Between Two Fires, the judges said:

A magnificent and moving account of everyday life in Putin’s Russia. Beautiful and haunting, Yaffa illuminates the challenges of moral life and the ways in which authoritarian rule is maintained. Beautiful and haunting, the book illuminates the challenges of moral life and the ways in which authoritarian rule is maintained.”

Joshua Yaffa sent in an acceptance speech from Moscow, where he is based:

I’m thrilled and honored to have won the Orwell Prize, an award that bears the name of an author who, perhaps more than any other, created a body of work that shows how one can write about politics with both clarity of thought and great humanity. That model was never far from my mind as I wrote Between Two Fires: I wanted to understand the dilemmas of compromise of the characters who form the core of the book, remaining clear eyed about their choices and the consequences of those choices, while also holding on to an empathetic reading of their lives and circumstances, oftentimes never quite sure whether I would have chosen or been able to act differently myself. The exercise of power and politics—especially in a place like Putin-era Russia—can complicate or scramble the pursuit of a noble, honest life, but life in all its beauty and strangeness remains all the same, even for those who make their own accommodation with the system. Orwell was a constant reference as I tried to untangle these stories and tell them with lucidity and, I hope, a measure of literary artistry.   


The shortlists, announced last month, featured thirteen writers working across different genres and forms to explore, confront and articulate the political challenges of our time, taking in reportage, nature-writing, history, experimental fiction and thrillers, and ranging across the world, from a Cumbrian hill-farm to a town in South-eastern Nigeria, and from the American Deep South to Ngaba Sichuan. The full list can be seen here.

The winners of The Orwell Prize for Journalism (John Harris and John Domokos, The Guardian) and The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils (Annabel Deas, for ‘Hope High’, a Radio 5 Live podcast series) were also announced this afternoon.

The Orwell Foundation also today revealed that the Orwell Prizes will return this autumn in a new format, with plans for an ambitious live event series in 2022, and a revised system of finalists and winners to replace the current longlist to winner structure, with the aim of achieving greater impact for the writing and reporting which comes through the prizes. More information will be announced in the autumn.

 

The Orwell Prize Longlist Conversations: ‘Europe’ with Olivette Otele, Sarah Moss and John Kampfner

Join John Kampfner, Sarah Moss and Olivette Otele for a discussion of their Orwell Prize-longlisted work at this special online event in collaboration with The Orwell Foundation. John Kampfner’s Why the Germans Do It Better and Olivette Otele’s African Europeans: An Untold History are both longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, while Summerwater by Sarah Moss is longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The authors will be joined on the night by Angela Saini, who is a judge for this year’s Political Writing prize.

The Orwell Prize longlists feature the finest political writing across non-fiction, fiction and journalism of last year: work that our judging panels believe best fulfils Orwell’s state ambition “to make political writing into an art.” Throughout the spring of 2021, the Orwell Foundation will be celebrating this writing in several ways, including a series of online events in association with independent bookshops across the U.K. These will spotlight some of the major themes arising from the longlists, and will feature writers from different lists being brought together to discuss their work.

John Kampfner is an award-winning author, broadcaster and foreign-affairs commentator. He began his career reporting from East Berlin (during the fall of the Wall) and Moscow (during the collapse of communism) for the Telegraph. After covering British politics for the Financial Times and BBC, he edited the New Statesman. He is a regular TV and radio pundit, documentary maker and author of five previous books, including the bestselling Blair’s Wars.

Sarah Moss is the author of several novels and a memoir of her year living in Iceland, Names for the Sea, shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her novels are SummerwaterCold EarthNight WakingBodies of Light (shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize), Signs for Lost Children (shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize), The Tidal Zone (shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize) and Ghost Wall, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019.

Olivette Otele is Professor of the History of Slavery at the University of Bristol and Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society. She is an expert on the history of people of African descent and the links between memory, geopolitics and legacies of French and British colonialism.

Angela Saini is an independent British science journalist and the author of three books, including Superior: The Return of Race Science. She presents radio and television programmes on the BBC and her writing has appeared in  The Sunday Times, Nature, New Scientist, National Geographic and Wired. She has won a number of national and international journalism awards.

Tickets include a £6 voucher that can be redeemed against any item on The Portobello Bookshop website – including books by the featured authors. Registration is with The Portebello Bookshop, where all ticketing enquiries should be directed.

Politics, Football and Place – A Resource by Wyn Grant

Wyn Grant is emeritus professor of politics at Warwick University.  His book ‘Political Football’ will be published by Agenda Books in June 2021.  He is secretary of the vice-presidents club at Leamington Football Club and a regular contributor to their programme.  He writes regularly for the Charlton fanzine Voice of the Valley.  His football blog is athttps://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/ 


Football teams are rooted in places.  Their names reflect a particular location and provide a means of identity with that place, not least for people who have moved away.  Yet, over the last few decades, that link between football and place has been shaken in a way that has important political implications.

If one goes back a hundred or even fifty years most clubs were owned by locally based businessmen. Even if the players did not come from the locality, and some of them always did, they lived nearby, often in relatively modest houses provided by the club.   They would come to the ground by bus or walk, mixing with fans on the way.

Football has now been globalised. For the leading clubs the number of followers they have round the world far exceed those in the ground on match day.  Many of these followers may never visit the ground, but they are a market for the club’s merchandise.  Firms from around the world will sponsor the club’s kit, even items like corner flags.  (Mlily is the official global mattress and pillow partner of Manchester United.)

This matters because globalisation raises a number of issues, including foreign ownership of clubs and the treatment of migrants, some of whom come to Europe with a dream of playing football.   Globalisation has slowed down in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic but not in football where private equity firms see an opportunity to acquire clubs at knockdown prices. However, it also provides an opportunity to use football to bring about positive change across the world.

Clubs do still try and play a role in their local communities. Many are located in or near deprived areas and make efforts to tackle poverty or to offer sporting opportunities to youngsters.

In some ways, place has become more important than person in electoral politics.  In the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party successfully appealed to so-called ‘red wall’ seats with disadvantaged economic geographies.

A Case Study: Manchester City

Few clubs have been through bigger changes than Manchester City.   Once located in one of the most deprived parts of the city, they have moved to a new stadium complex and have been able to spend to acquire a world class manager and players.  This was made possible by the club’s acquisition by Sheikh Mansour in 2008. Sheikh Mansour is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, he is also Minister of Presidential Affairs in the UAE and a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. He is the chairman of the International Petroleum Investment Company and also has a stake in Virgin Galactic.

City claim ‘we’re using the ‘football effect’ to promote health, education and inclusion, to improve the lives of young people in Manchester and all over the world. ’ Using football as a magnet to engage young people, the Club’s Foundation, City in the Community (CITC) delivers a range of award-winning programs, focusing on three main areas: Health, Education, and Inclusion.

Among the ‘inclusion’ activities are holiday soccer schools, girls football and walking football alongside one of the club’s longest-standing initiatives called ‘Kicks’ – which delivers community football for 8-19-year-olds during peak times of anti-social behaviour in the most deprived communities in the city. The aim is to promote increased community integration and combat negative stereotypes.

 

 

Projects across the world

Through City Football Group, which owns Manchester City and clubs around the world, projects are being delivered in many different countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa. For example, Ghana is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies and has made significant progress in reducing poverty. However, more than 60 per cent of the population still lack access to safe drinking water, leaving them vulnerable to water-related illness and disease. This can affect children’s education, especially girls, as they often have to walk long distances to collect water, making them late for school, or they are absent due to illness from waterborne diseases.

Football is being used to teach children about life-saving water and sanitation education, keeping them healthy and in school, and will be combined with equipment to provide clean water access to the local community.   Football is used to teach children about drinking healthy water, regular hand washing and staying away from germs.

The city of Manchester

Manchester City is one of two world class clubs in Manchester, the other being Manchester United.  A major football club also helps to raise the profile of a city, facilitating the attraction of overseas investment.

A study completed in 2013 by Cambridge Econometrics looked at the impact of football on Greater Manchester. It was estimated that football supported 5,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Greater Manchester, and that the gross value added associated with footballing activities was £330 million per annum in 2011.

In addition to the positive impact on tourism, and not just on match days, it was noted that “Missions looking to attract trade and investment to the Greater Manchester area use football in a number of ways. The most direct method is co-ordinating mission dates with Manchester United and Manchester City on their summer tours to major overseas markets”.

But then there are losers

In the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Manchester was  known as ‘Cottonpolis’ because of the number of cotton mills, many now used as apartments, offices or for entertainment.   It was surrounded by a ring of cotton towns which in their time were quite prosperous with the mills offering regular employment for women at a time when this was less usual.

However, all these towns have been hit by economic and social challenges and this has been reflected in their football teams. After all, Premier League football in Manchester is just a tram or train ride away. Look at what has happened to these teams elsewhere in Greater Manchester:

  • Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League for many years, in League Two in 2020/21
  • Oldham Athletic in the Premier League when it was set up in 1992, now in League Two
  • Bury, disappeared other than as a ‘phoenix’ non-league club
  • Stockport County, at one time in the second tier of the Football League, now a non-league club
  • Rochdale, in League One in 2020/21, but fighting relegation
  • Wigan Athletic in administration in 2020/21 and fighting relegation from League One

Now think about clubs that started as non-league clubs and are now in the Football League ().   Where do they come from?

  • Southern England: AFC Wimbledon; Cambridge United; Cheltenham Town; Crawley Town; Forest Green Rovers; Oxford United; Peterborough United; Stevenage; Wycombe Wanderers (9) (The derby between Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers is known as ‘El Glosico’)
  • Midlands: Burton Albion (1)
  • North of England: Barrow; Fleetwood Town; Harrogate Town (prosperous northern spa town); Morecambe; Salford City (owned by former Manchester United players) (5)

The stadium and a sense of place

The stadium is where fans go to see home games, but it is also where they go to meet friends, some of whom they only see at football matches.   For example, when Charlton are playing at home I leave Warwickshire at 9.30 am to meet friends in my birthplace of Greenwich for brunch and a pre-match drink.

Charlton fans were exiled from The Valley after it was deemed unsafe to play in and had to share the ground of their South London rivals Crystal Palace.   New owners were prepared to fund a return to the ground, but Greenwich Council was reluctant to give planning permission.  Fans formed a political party called The Valley Party and fought local elections, securing the defeat of the chairman of the planning committee.   They subsequently were given permission to return and now have good relations with the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Coventry City fans left their ground in the city centre for the new Ricoh Arena on the outskirts of the city. They did not own the stadium and a series of court cases followed which saw them playing home matches at Northampton Town’s ground and then in 2020/21 at St. Andrews, the home of Birmingham City.   West Midlands mayor Andy Street helped with negotiations between Coventry City and the owners of the Ricoh, Wasps Rugby Football club.   In March 2021 it was announced that they have signed a ten-year agreement for Coventry City to play at the Ricoh, pending the construction of their new stadium on the Warwick University campus.

Ticket prices

A common complaint made by fans and some journalists is that the demographic base of football is changing. High ticket prices exclude traditional working-class supporters and also cannot be afforded by younger people, leading to an ageing support base.

In 1960, tickets at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge cost 1 per cent of the average weekly wage, which rose to almost 3 per cent by 1990 and in 2010 stood at 10 per cent. Supporters have become more affluent with clubs particularly keen to sell lucrative corporate boxes.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has noted: ‘Some clubs deliberately restrict season ticket sales in order to maximise income from football tourists, who pay more for tickets for individual matches and are more likely to spend money on merchandise in the club megastore.’  His research shows that between 1966 and 2018 ticket prices “outstripped inflation … by over 2000 per cent for the cheapest tickets, and a mere 750 per cent for the most expensive.’

Nevertheless, observations of this kind often overlook the fact that society as a whole has become more middle class and affluent with a decline in the number of those in manual occupations.  People have more discretionary income to spend.

Further reading/listening/watching

Questions for discussion

What does the increase of global football tourism, rising ticket prices and foreign ownership of clubs mean for locally based supporters?   Are they happy to accept the additional funds that are brought in which means that the club can win more matches and trophies?   Or do they think that their links with the club as fans and as an important source of their identity is undermined?

Can you name the club that once played in League One but whose stadium has now been demolished and the club only exists as a non-league phoenix club.   What was the stadium called and what famous product did the club’s owner make?    The first person with correct answers sent to The Orwell Youth Prize will receive a free copy of Wyn Grant’s book Political Football.

Research task: do stadiums matter?

What is particularly challenging about stadiums as economic assets?   Can one rebuild a stadium to secure a better return – for example, have Tottenham Hotspur managed this?   Did Arsenal take a financial hit on their pitch from their move to the Emirates?   Why have new stadiums not boosted the fortunes of Middlesbrough and Sunderland?  Chelsea have long sought a new stadium location as Stamford Bridge is difficult to rebuild – but then how did Brentford manage to build a new stadium on an awkward site?   Is the new stadium for Forest Green Rovers, known as ‘the Vegans’, really environmentally sustainable?

Finally, a prompt for the Writing Prize

What does the future hold for football and place? How can a small non-league football club owned by its fans develop as a club and as part of the local community?   What forms of help are available?   How can it provide training for youngsters and develop a team for women?   Perhaps look at the website of Lewes FC https://www.lewesfc.com as a starting point.  You can also google stories about Lewes in the national press. What are the similarities and differences between ‘grassroots’ football campaigns, and other forms of political action?

The Orwell Prizes 2021: The Longlists

The longlists for The Orwell Prizes 2021 are announced today, Friday 9th April.

The books and reporting across the four Orwell longlists tell the story of a staggering year.  The borderless nature of the Coronavirus crisis is reflected in the international scope of the stories, from works of history that illuminate our political predicaments, to novels that bring fresh, human perspectives on political stories, all revealing how the virus has intensified pre-existing anxieties, whilst introducing a new set of concerns.

The Orwell Prize for Political Writing

The thirteen books on the 2021 Political Writing longlist take in conspiracies, care, environmental crisis and political power. One central theme is the value and vulnerability of truth, from restoring forgotten histories to the consequences of widespread mistrust in our institutions. The full longlist is:

Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends by Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane)

Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting (Granta)

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick (Granta)

The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination by Richard Evans (Allen Lane)

Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country by John Kampfner (Atlantic Books)

Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (William Collins)

History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America by Bruno Maçães (Hurst Publishers)

How Spies Think: 10 Lessons in Intelligence by David Omand (Viking)

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele (Hurst Publishers)

English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks (Allen Lane)

Recollections of My Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit (Granta)

The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery by Michael Taylor (Bodley Head)

Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa (Granta)

The judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Writing are: Anand Menon (chair), Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London and Director of the ‘UK in a Changing Europe’ initiative; Angela Saini, award-winning journalist and broadcaster, and author; Richard Ekins, Professor of Law and Constitutional Government at the University of Oxford; and Rosemary Goring, author and columnist  with the Herald and the Sunday Herald.

Anand Menon, Chair of Judges, commented: “Selecting thirteen books from the wonderful selection of works submitted has not been easy. However, we are delighted with a longlist that covers everything from race and identity to conspiracy theories, from the development of modern Tibet to the lesson we can learn from Germany, from the problems confronting the care sector, to the challenges facing spies. This collection of books is a testament to the role that political writing can play not only in explaining but also challenging the state of our world.”

 

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction

This year’s longlist of twelve range across place and time, from counterfactual historical fiction, to reflections on identity and community, to apocalyptic visions of climate breakdown. This is the third year that the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, sponsored by the Orwell Estate’s literary agents, A. M. Heath, and Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, has been awarded. The prize rewards outstanding novels and collections of short stories first published in the UK that illuminate major social and political themes, present or past, through the art of narrative. The full longlist is:

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Bloomsbury)

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Dialogue Books)

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber)

A Lover’s Discourse by Xialou Guo (Chatto & Windus)

Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Bloomsbury)

Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)

Summerwater by Sarah Moss (Picador)

Weather by Jenny Offill (Granta)

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press)

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield (Transworld)

Summer by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Picador)

The four judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction are: author, broadcaster and academic Delia Jarrett-Macauley (chair), former winner of The Orwell Prize for Moses, Citizen and Me; the historian and writer Andrea Stuart; Bea Carvalho, head fiction buyer at Waterstones; and Mark Ford, professor at University College London, author and poet.

The Chair of Judges, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, commented: “Whilst this is a truly international list of books, it also reflects the way that global politics is experienced: as national, local and personal. Fiction can map these connections in fresh and exciting ways, showing us complex resonances across history, and between continents. Ranging from the quietly political to overt explorations of issues such as war, race and climate change, these twelve novels demonstrate that politics is not just a question of the intellect, but of the imagination too.”

 

The Orwell Prize for Journalism

The 2021 Orwell Prize for Journalism longlist features the year’s best political commentary alongside brave and methodical collaborative reporting, on subjects from the impact of Covid-19 in the UK to authoritarian impunity across the globe, all in pursuit of Orwell’s own ambition ‘to make political writing into an art’. The full longlist is:

The five judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Journalism are: Carrie Gracie (chair), former BBC China editor and author of ‘Equal: How We Fix the Gender Pay Gap’; Clive Myrie, multi-award winning journalist, and broadcaster; Iain Martin, editor, publisher and co-founder of Reaction; Kamran Abbasi, doctor, and executive editor for content at the British Medical Journal; and Rosie Blau, editor of the Economist’s 1843 Magazine.

 

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils

Sponsored and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils has a unique remit to encourage, highlight and sustain original, insightful, and impactful reporting on social issues in the UK that has enhanced the public understanding of social problems and public policy, and welcomes reporting that uses investigative intelligence to pursue new kinds of story, ones that may also extend the reach of traditional media.

The Prize is named in recognition of the task Joseph Rowntree gave his organization ‘to search out the underlying causes of weakness or evil’ that lay behind Britain’s social problems.

Professor Jean Seaton, Director of The Orwell Foundation, commented: “Journalism has rarely been under such pressure, yet this longlist shows how hard-won investigative work, personal commitment, and reporting which keeps the public constantly in mind has been critical to understanding what we need to do to repair the society Covid-19 itself has exposed.” The full longlist is:

The five judges for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils are: Paul Kissack (chair), Group Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and previously a Director General in the UK Government on the national response to Covid-19; Ian Birrell, whose investigation into abuse in the NHS was awarded The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils in 2020; Professor Donna Hall CBE, chair of the national think tank New Local and the chair of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust; Director of Strategy and Policy for the Children’s Commissioner, Alice Miles; and Rianna Croxford, award-winning investigative journalist at BBC News. 

The shortlists for all prizes will be announced later in the spring, while the winners of the prizes, which are both worth £3,000, will be unveiled around George Orwell’s birthday, 25th June 2021. We would like to thank our sponsors, The Political Quarterly, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, A.M. Heath, and Richard Blair, for their continued support and making The Orwell Prizes possible.

For more information about this year’s prizes, and for media resources, please contact the appropriate prize administrator:

  • Political Writing and Political Fiction: James Tookey (james.tookey@theorwellprize.co.uk)
  • Exposing Britain’s Social Evils: Alex Talbott (alextalbott@orwellyouthprize.co.uk)
  • Journalism, and for all other queries: Jeremy Wikeley (jeremy.wikeley@orwellfoundation)

Robert Wright: ‘Behind Closed Doors: Modern Slavery in Kensington’

Robert Wright has worked for the Financial Times since 1997 in many roles, including Budapest correspondent, transport correspondent and US industry correspondent. He is currently social affairs correspondent. He focuses on immigration and policing, seeking to show how policy is working and giving voice to those whom the system fails.

Wright writes: “I first heard of the work of Kalayaan and other groups helping escaped domestic workers in 2019 and spent months squeezing research on the subject around my day-to-day reporting. I was profoundly disturbed to hear the stories of women who’d slipped away from abusive employers during visits to the UK and felt appalled about their plight. I thought it important to highlight the huge barriers to justice that faced this group, who as immigrants with no roots in the UK are as vulnerable as any fleeing migrants could possibly be. From the moment I met some of the women in Kensington Gardens in July 2019, their courage, resourcefulness and tenacity profoundly moved me. However, the issue also had wider significance. I recognised that, if the government preferred to avoid making minor adjustments to the visa arrangements of this small, vulnerable group, there were real questions about its commitment to tackling modern slavery. I consequently went in some detail in the piece into why the Overseas Worker’s Visa is so fundamentally flawed.”