Episode description

George Orwell has never been accused of being a feminist. And yet his wife Eileen left her mark on his most important works.

Starring Sally Drexler as Eileen Blair and Nigel Daly as George Orwell

Also featuring: Ben Partridge, Luke Millington-Drake, Thom Wickes, Amelia Chappelow, and Colin Anderson.

Source List:

Eileen: The Making of George Orwell by Sylvia Topp, © 2020 

Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder, © 2023

Orwell: The Life by D.J. Taylor, © 2003, Published 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media

Orwell: The New Life by D.J. Taylor, © 2023, Published by Pegasus Books, Ltd

1984 & Coming Up For Air by George Orwell, © 2021 by True Sign

1984 & Animal Farm by George Orwell, © 2022, Sanage Publishing

The Guardian, Looking for Eileen: how George Orwell wrote his wife out of his story

The New York Times, One Biography Questions Orwell’s Image, and Another Brings His First Wife Into Focus

New Humanist, Eric, Eileen and Norah

The American Scholar, Down and Out

The Guardian, Orwell by DJ Taylor Review - A Very English Socialist

The Orwell Foundation, Remembering Eileen: An Interview with George Orwell’s Son, Richard Blair

The New York Times, How ‘Orwellian’ Became an All-Purpose Insult

Online Etymology Dictionary, Orwellian

The Sydney Morning Herald, The Mysterious Absence of George Orwell’s First Wife

The Guardian, Another Piece of the Puzzle

The Orwell Society, Eileen - and Orwell’s Shifting Attitudes on Gender Issues

The New Yorker, Honest, Decent, Wrong

The Article, In Defense of George Orwell