Events

Reading and Misreading Orwell

18 December 2023

The Orwell Foundation and the Institute of Advanced Studies are delighted to welcome Dr Débora Tavares (University of São Paulo) and Dr Nathan Waddell (University of Birmingham) for two talks on 'reading and misreading' the work of George Orwell. Fre… find out more

The Orwell Lecture 2023

11 October 2023

Anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder will deliver this year’s Orwell Memorial Lecture, In Front of Your Nose: Putin, Russia and What We Failed to See. The lecture, which is a public event, will take place on Wednesday 22nd November at University C… find out more

George Orwell’s Hampstead

24 May 2023

Led by Michael King, experienced tour guide and Orwell Society member Pond Street Gardens, 11.45am Although he only lived in Hampstead for about 15 months in the mid-1930s, this was an important period in George Orwell’s life. On this walk, led by M… find out more

The Political Quarterly Conversation: Polly Toynbee – An Uneasy Inheritance

24 May 2023

Join acclaimed author and past winner of the Orwell Prize for Journalism, Polly Toynbee, as she discusses her latest book An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals. In it, she explores how, while for generations her ancestors have been committe… find out more

Orwell and Empire (at Pushkin House)

24 May 2023

Join Phillipe Sands, author of The Last Colony (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2023), Douglas Kerr, author of Orwell and Empire, and Kojo Koram, author of Uncommon Wealth (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2022) as they explore first what Kerr calls Orwe… find out more

The Orwell Festival Lecture 2023

24 May 2023

Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester in England. Formerly a columnist at The Guardian he is an editorial board member of the Nation magazine and the Alfred Knobler Fellow for Ty… find out more

Orwell Youth Prize Regional Hub at Coventry University

01 March 2023

10th March 2023, Coventry University  On Friday 10th March more than 100 school students from across the West Midlands will come together at Coventry University for a unique day of creative writing and journalism workshops inspired by the 2023 Orwell… find out more

The Orwell Memorial Lecture 2022

15 November 2022

About this event The Orwell Foundation is delighted to announce that Lisa Nandy MP will deliver this year's Orwell Lecture. Lisa will be talking about the lessons she has learnt from over a decade at the forefront of British politics as Member of Parliam… find out more

George Monbiot on Journalism, Politics and the Climate Crisis

01 September 2022

Join us for a discussion with writer and journalist George Monbiot, winner of the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2022 Describing the environmental crisis as the greatest challenge humankind has ever confronted, George Monbiot has been trying… find out more

The Orwell Festival: Who’s Killing Our Daughters?

05 July 2022

Join us for this essential debate on how and why, too often, society is failing to keep women safe. The murder of Sarah Everard was billed as a watershed moment, yet at least another 125 women were killed by men in the following twelve months. A panel of … find out more

The Orwell Festival: Crackdown on Dissent

05 July 2022

In what promises to be an event that is truly global in scope, covering Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Russia, Rwanda, and Ukraine, join Ali Fowle, Drew Ambrose, Michela Wrong, and Polina Ivanova as they reflect upon the similarities and dissimilarities of the crac… find out more

The Orwell Festival: J.O. Morgan on APPLIANCE

05 July 2022

Join us for a discussion with poet and novelist J.O. Morgan on his Orwell Prize for Political Fiction shortlisted novel Appliance, a highly inventive and and humane novel about our relationship with technology and our addiction to innovation, with Orwe… find out more

The Orwell Festival: Children and Care

05 July 2022

There are now more children in care than ever before, and not because of a rise in physical or sexual abuse, but because of complex factors that are overlooked and misunderstood. In her Orwell-shortlisted book Behind Closed Doors, Polly Curtis invest… find out more

The Orwell Festival: George Monbiot in conversation

28 June 2022

Describing the environmental crisis as the greatest challenge humankind has ever confronted, George Monbiot has been trying to raise the profile of a wide range of desperately neglected environmental issues for the last 37 years. Yet these issues are almo… find out more

The Coming Storm with Gabriel Gatehouse and Lucy Proctor

28 June 2022

Join Gabriel Gatehouse and Lucy Proctor as they discuss their podcast 'The Coming Storm', shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Journalism 2022. A year on from the Capitol Insurrection in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, Gabriel Gatehouse journeyed into th… find out more

Ali Smith on Why We Write

28 June 2022

Join us for an evening with Ali Smith and Sarah Wood as they discuss why we write today, politics, fiction and Orwell. There will be a screening of the film Why We Write, a film made in collaboration by Ali and Sarah, a well as discussion of Ali's Season… find out more

The Orwell Festival: Chris Patten on his Hong Kong Diaries

28 June 2022

Chris Patten, former Governor of Hong Kong and current Chancellor of Oxford University, will be interviewed by Isabel Hilton, founder and senior adviser of China Dialogue, about his book The Hong Kong Diaries. In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong… find out more

The Orwell Festival

15 June 2022

Great political writing can, and does, change the world and the very best of it will be showcased at the Orwell Festival. This year, we’ve teamed up with Substack and UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies to put on The Orwell Festival. From 22 June… find out more

‘Politics and the Imagination’: The Orwell Lecture with Ian McEwan

12 October 2021

Ian McEwan will deliver this year's Orwell Lecture on the topic 'Politics and the Imagination: Reflections on Orwell's Inside the Whale' LIVE STREAM NOW AVAILABLE - CLICK HERE FOR LINK In 1957, Albert Camus wrote, 'it is always p… find out more

Longlist Conversation: ‘Care’ with Madeleine Bunting, Douglas Stuart and Ciaran Jenkins

29 April 2021

Join Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain, Political Fiction), and journalist's Madeleine Bunting (author of Labours of Love: The Care Crisis, Political Writing) and Ciaran Jenkins (Journalism Prize) as they discuss their Orwell Prize longlist… find out more