A review by caroparr
Orwell by D.J. Taylor

4.0

I think Taylor avoids this word, but "enigmatic" describes Eric Blair/George Orwell very well. His life was sad in many ways, fraught with illness and a slow start finding his way in life. At a few points Taylor must say that no one quite knows where he was or what he did for several months or more. The strength of this biography is the way Taylor immerses the reader in this enigmatic, mysterious life, so that you are with Orwell in Burma, at school, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, writing and writing and writing, and denying the illness that finally killed him, too young. I have no great interest in Thackeray but would read Taylor's biography of him on the strength of this and his wonderful novels.