George Orwell
Novelist, essayist and journalist · 1903–1950
Orwell was an English writer best known for Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, which portrayed totalitarian rule. He described himself as a democratic socialist, fought for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, and opposed both fascism and Stalinism.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
No strong recorded view on regional versus central government.
He said he wrote against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism.
Nineteen Eighty-Four warned against surveillance and state control of thought and language.
He defended an English patriotism while criticising nationalism as a mental vice.
He fought in Spain, backed the war against Hitler and criticised pacifists of the time.
He opposed British imperialism; no strong recorded view on immigration.
In The Lion and the Unicorn he called for nationalisation and limits on income inequality.
He supported public ownership of land, mines, railways and major industries.
No strong recorded view on trade.
He was not a believer and criticised the Catholic Church's politics, though he valued Anglican custom.
He was socialist and anti-imperialist but voiced some socially conservative and prejudiced views.
In The Road to Wigan Pier he worried that mechanisation would make people soft and dependent.