About The Orwell FoundationThrough our prizes, events, workshops and resources, The Orwell Foundation aims to offer a platform for debate and discussion designed to appeal to the widest possible public audience, connecting with everyone to whom George Orwell and his writings are a source of inspiration.The Orwell FoundationTOF_b2c12440-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea00The Orwell Foundation is the home of The Orwell Prizes and The Orwell Youth Prize. We use George Orwell's work to celebrate honest writing and reporting, uncover hidden lives and confront uncomfortable truths – and, in doing so, to promote Orwell's values of integrity, decency and fidelity to truth.George OrwellFrom the corruption of truth to pervasive new technologies, and from poverty and inequality to the rise of political extremism, George Orwell's concerns are as relevant to the twenty-first century as they were to the circumstances in which his great novels were conceived.TOF Sponsors & PartnersThe Orwell Foundation is extremely grateful to its sponsors and partners. If you would like to find out more about supporting the Foundation, please contact us.AM HeathLiterary Agents The Political QuarterlyJoseph Rowntree FoundationUCLInspiration from the writings of George Orwell_b2c12576-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea00To offer a platform for debate and discussion_b2c1262a-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea00LibertyIntellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face… If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear ~ George Orwell: Proposed Preface to Animal FarmIntellectualityHonestyCourageHeterodoxyTo exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment. ~ George Orwell: Proposed Preface to Animal FarmIdealsUsing the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. ~ George Orwell: Why I WriteHonestyWhen there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. ~ George Orwell: Politics and the English LanguageFactualityFreedom of the intellect means the freedom to report what one has seen, heard, and felt, and not to be obliged to fabricate imaginary facts and feelings. ~ George Orwell: The Prevention of LiteratureSocial JusticeGeorge Orwell is one of the world’s most influential writers, the visionary author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four and his eyewitness, non-fiction classics Down and Out in Paris in London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia. During his life, and through his writing, Orwell was a fierce critic of totalitarianism and advocate for social justice. “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)InternationalismIn his first novel Burmese Days and striking essays like ‘Shooting an Elephant’ and ‘A Hanging’, Orwell reflected on his own experiences of colonialism. He argued that the British Empire was a destructive force both for the people it governed and the colonialists themselves. Orwell also wrote that after his work for the British Empire he ‘began to look more closely at his own country and saw that England also had its oppressed.’ Orwell remained a trenchant critic of the British Empire throughout his life. He also warned against the rise of nationalism and sought to examine the causes and effects of ‘nationalist’ thinking on people’s understanding of society.DecencyEconomic Injustice ~ "The average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit." After returning to England Orwell set out to become a writer. Although he was from a comfortable background, in order to report on poverty and economic deprivation he wanted to experience it for himself as far as possible. He therefore made various expeditions ‘down and out’ in London, living as a ‘tramp’, which he described in his essay ‘The Spike’. Later, Orwell took jobs as a dishwasher in restaurants and cafes in the centre of Paris. Orwell’s non-fiction work Down and Out in Paris and London described these experiences and asked searching questions about attitudes to people without work or in low paid, insecure labour. In 1936 Orwell travelled to England’s industrial heartlands in the north, where many people were experiencing great hardship following the Great Depression. In The Road to Wigan Pier, part social reportage, part political polemic, Orwell described what he had seen and learnt. As ever, Orwell wanted to experience people’s living and working conditions for himself and wrote vividly about the life of coal miners and their families. In the second part of the book, Orwell made a controversial and highly-influential argument about why campaigners at the time were struggling to win support for their vision of a fair society. He argued that many campaigners for social justice misunderstood the emotional lives of the people they wanted to help, concentrating too much on promoting their own political doctrines and dogma. Instead, he argued in favour of ‘common decency’ and a sense of fairness. Orwell expanded on these themes in his wartime essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn‘, which argued for a ‘new form of Britishness’.FreedomFreedom and Totalitarianism ~ “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” As an author, George Orwell is probably best known for his powerful, stark depictions of totalitarianism in his parable Animal Farm and dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.FairnessIn Animal Farm, inspired by the history of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin’s dictatorship, Orwell depicted how a movement which was begun with ideas of fairness could be distorted into something very different. Nineteen Eighty-Four, his final novel, imagines a society in which the pressures of war and the power of the state have made even the idea of values like fairness impossible.ResourcesPublish resources by and about George Orwell_b2c126c0-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea001TeachersFOR TEACHERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE ~ Whatever your subject – politics, English, history, citizenship, drama to name but a few – whatever the age group – the Orwell Foundation website has a wealth of resources. These are available free to everyone, regardless of whether you or your school are currently involved with the Youth Prize.YouthCheck out the Orwell Youth Prize’s handy guide to what’s on offer.ORWELL RESOURCES ~ As the only website officially sanctioned by the Orwell Estate, we publish a wide range of resources by and about George Orwell, including our Webby-shortlisted Orwell Diaries blog, Orwell's most popular essays and a library of links to external and exclusive content.Essays & ArticlesShare essays, articles, sketches, reviews and scripts written by Orwell_b2c12774-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea001.1ESSAYS AND OTHER WORKS ~ A selection of essays, articles, sketches, reviews and scripts written by Orwell. The collection includes Orwell’s most popular essays including ‘Notes on Nationalism’ and ‘The Moon under the Water’, as well as personal letters, early drafts and other hard-to-find pieces like ‘The Freedom of the Press’, Orwell’s proposed preface to Animal Farm which was first published in the TLS with an introduction by Orwell Prize founder Sir Bernard Crick in 1972.DiariesPost diary entries by George Orwell_b2c1281e-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea001.2DIARIES ~ The Orwell Foundation has three blogs posting diary entries by George Orwell: the Webby-nominated Orwell Diaries 1938-42 blog; The Road to Wigan Pier blog, which carries the diary Orwell wrote while touring the Midlands and north of England between 31st January and 25th March 1936, with each entry being published seventy-five years after it was originally written; and the Hop-Picking diary blog, about Orwell’s tramping and hop-picking exploits between August and October 1931 with each entry being published 80 years after it was originally written. * Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 * The Road to Wigan Pier Diary * Hop-picking DiaryPoetryShare poetry by the young Orwell as well as some essays on poetic matters_b2c128d2-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea001.3POETRY ~ A selection of original poetry by the young Orwell, as well as some of Orwell’s critical essays on poetic matters, including pieces on major figures like Rudyard Kipling and W. B. Yeats.LibraryMaintain a library of works about George Orwell and his writing_b2c12990-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea001.4LIBRARY ~ We maintain an extensive library of works about George Orwell and his writing, consisting of some material exclusive to this site and links to external sites. We’ll continue to add to the library, so please get in touch if you find any good work about Orwell online. (Pages behind paywalls are indicated with a ‘£’.)PrizesAward prizes_b2c12a44-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002BooksAward prizes for political books_b2c12b66-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002.1FictionAward prizes for political fiction_b2c12c24-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002.2JournalismAward prizes for journalism_b2c12ce2-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002.3Social EvilsAward prized for exposing Britain's social evils_b2c12daa-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002.4YouthSupport and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers_b2c12e68-19c0-11ec-8d2f-a89d0483ea002.5Young WritersTHE ORWELL YOUTH PRIZE~ Inspired by its own ‘Big Brother’, Britain’s most prestigious Prize for political writing, the Orwell Youth Prize aims to support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers.2021-09-19https://www.orwellfoundation.com/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net