By searching for George Orwell’s past, Emma Larkin reveals his relevance to
Review of Secret Histories. Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop, by Emma Larkin. John Murray, London: 2004: 232 pp. |
It’s not a bad way to spend one’s time, becoming a habitu้ of teashops, chatting to other bibliophiles, intellectuals, students, and the occasional nasty official. These unique spaces of Burmese life are the primary sources for Emma Larkin’s rich new book, Secret Histories, as she follows the trail of George Orwell’s time in colonial
Orwell spent five years during the 1920s as a policeman in the British colonial service, which Larkin argues “was the beginning of [his] uncanny and prophetic trilogy which told the history of present day Burma”, through the novels Burmese Days, Animal Farm and 1984.
Larkin spent nearly ten years following Orwell’s career, to all his postings in the country, including
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