Orwell's Message

"The Crystal Spirit," George Woodcock' s intellectual biography of George Orwell, won the 1966 Governor General' s Award for non-fiction. In this book he turns his attention to "1984," the novel which expresses Orwell' s fears for the future, and his exhortations against totalitarianism.
First-hand experience with twentieth-century politics combines with extensive knowledge of history and literature to give Woodcock' s writing authority and immediacy. His ten-year friendship with George Orwell adds a personal tone to this work of criticism, biography, political history, and current events.