Dickens and O’Shaughnessy

Friday 08 June 2012

Tomorrow it will be 142 years since Charles Dickens died. Two centuries since his death Dickens is still much loved for his great contribution to classic English literature. It is thought by many that he was the quintessential Victorian author. Dickens is quoted as saying; “Every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” You can read Orwell’s views on Dickens’ message in his essay Charles Dickens on our website. In 2010 we took a debate to Buxton festival called The Greatest Political Writer: Orwell versus Dickens. In July this year we will be returning to Buxton to debate Orwell versus Kipling. On a brighter note tomorrow is also the wedding anniversary of George Orwell and Eileen O’Shaughnessy who married in 1936.

Awards Ceremony 2012

The photographs of this year’s Orwell Prize Ceremony have been uploaded to The Orwell Prize Facebook page. And remember – you can read the first chapter of the winning book, all of the winning journalism and the winning blogposts on our site.

From the archive

All the excitement over the Queen’s Diamond jubilee celebration reminded us of this quote from Orwell’s essay The Lion and the Unicorn; “In England patriotism takes different forms in different classes, but it runs like a connecting thread through nearly all of them.” Today we have celebrated the anniversary of Nineteen Eighty Four which was published on 8th June 1949

From elsewhere

  • For a chance to win a copy of The Orwell Prize winning, Dead Men Risen tweet The Orwell Prize telling us why you write. The winners will be chosen by Toby Harnden and announced on Monday 11th June
  • Last week Elton John said the Animal Farm stage musical he’s working on is “really dark”
  • Ray Bradbury, who wrote Fahrenheit 451, died this week
  • Orwell Prize 2012 Blog Judge, Hopi Sen, won a gigantic cake carved into a likeness of Her Majesty at Jubilee fete on the weekend
  • The wartime diaries

    This week’s entries were published on 4th, 6th, 7th and 10th June 1942. Next week’s entries will be published on 11th, 13th and 15th June 1942. Don’t forget our other Orwell Diary blogs: his Hop-Picking Diary and The Road to Wigan Pier Diary. If you’ve got any suggestions about our website(s), we’d love to hear from you – email us on katriona.lewis@mediastandardstrust.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.