The Orwell Foundation is based at University College London. Its small staff is led by Director, Liz Wallace.
To get in touch, please email the team at info@orwellfoundation.com.
Liz Wallace
DirectorLiz Wallace became Director in February 2026, having joined The Orwell Foundation
from BBC Westminster, where she had worked as a Political Reporter and News
Editor. Before that Liz lived in Paris, beside Orwell’s first lodging in la rue du Pot de
Fer. She discovered that the bistros he frequented in Down and Out, ‘where you could be drunk for the equivalent of a shilling’ had raised their prices considerably in the intervening years.
Jeremy Wikeley
Communications ManagerJeremy joined The Orwell Foundation (then The Orwell Prize) and The Orwell Youth Prize as an administrator in 2016, and has since been involved in almost every aspect of the charity’s expanding activities – including launching and editing the Substack serial, Orwell Daily. Also a freelance writer, he finds Orwell’s essays on literature and politics an endless source of inspiration.
James Tookey
Book Prize ManagerJames administers The Orwell Prizes for Political Writing and Political Fiction. Outside of the Foundation, he works in publishing. His favourite writing by Orwell can be found in the essays of the 1940s: they are inexhaustibly brilliant.
Sam Hill
Youth Prize ManagerSam is the Programme Manager for the Orwell Youth Prize and a former winner of the Prize from all the way back in 2015 (thanks to some great teachers). He also lectures in Politics at the University of Bristol, and writes about national identity, class, and ethnicity. Nineteen Eighty-Four was the first book he ever read cover to cover, sparking a lifelong love of sci-fi and fantasy. He credits Orwell’s works for shaping his passion for all things politics too.
Graham Self
Office AdministratorGraham supports the Foundation with the administration of its prizes, events, and general office needs. Outside of the Foundation, he works in theatre and production, including with Degenerate Fox, the London Neo-Futurists. As a lifelong animal lover, Graham finds Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant particularly heartrending and feels both Boxer and Mollie were hard done by in Animal Farm.