I'm staying here till the beginning of October, or perhaps a few weeks later. After that my address in London will be as usual. The address of my publishers (for Homage to Catalonia) is Messrs. Secker and Warburg Publishers 7 John Street London W.C.1.
Tres amicalement
Geo. Orwell
P.S. I enclose a copy of my pamphlet James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution, which first appeared as an article in Polemic with the title 'Second Thoughts on James Burnham.' I suppose it is possible that one of the monthlies might think it worth translating.
[XVIII, 3036, pp. 360-3; typewritten]
1.Charlot saw the French translation of Homage to Catalonia through the press.
2.These and other changes listed by Orwell were made for the Collected Works edition, Vol. VI.
3.The French edition (1955) simply translated the title Homage to Catalonia into French. For the changes made for the French edition, and Orwell's additional notes, see CW, VI, Textual Note.
4.The proposed translation of Coming Up for Air may be a reference to La fille de l'air.
5.'Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels', Polemic, No. 5, September-October 1946 (see XVIII, 3089, pp. 417-32).
To Lydia Jackson*
7 August 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dear Lydia,
Thanks for your letter. If you'd like to come up here, there would be room in the house in the second half of August, say any time between the 15th and September 1st. Somebody else is coming on the latter date, I think. [Details about travel: see 16.6.46]1 Try and give me several daysdeg notice, won't you, so that I can arrange about hiring the car. I think Susan's little girl is coming up on Friday the 16th, in which case I shall go to Glasgow to meet her, but it's not certain yet.
Thanks so much for sending on the boots. We need all the footwear we can get here because of course one is constantly getting wet, especially when we go fishing. Latterly the weather has been foul but whenever it's decent we go out at night and catch a lot of fish which helps the larder.
As to the repairs.2 As I am supposed to be the tenant, it might be best if you sent Keep's bill on to me and let me pay it, and I will then send the receipted bill to Dearman and see what I can get out of him. I don't suppose we'll get the whole amount, but anyway we can square up afterwards. I don't suppose Keep will charge an enormous amount from what I know of him.
Love to Pat.
Yours
Eric
[XVIII, 3044, pp. 369-70; typewritten]
1.Orwell also asked Lydia to bring 'some bread and/or flour'. The shortage of grain for bread grew worse during 1946 (partly because grain was needed for those near starvation in Continental Europe). The wheat content of bread was reduced in March 1946; in April the size of loaves was reduced from 2lbs to 13/4lbs - but the price was not reduced - and there was a 15% cut in grain for brewing beer; in June bread was rationed despite the fact that that had not proved necessary throughout the war. Near the opening of Nineteen Eighty-Four (IX, p. 7) Winston Smith finds he has only 'a hunk of dark-coloured bread' to eat but that had to be saved for the next morning's breakfast. The draft manuscript is even more specific for it is there described as 'a single slab of bread three centimetres thick' (Facsimile, p. 15).
2.The repairs are to The Stores, Wallington, not Barnhill. Mr Dearman was the landlord. (See Shelden, pp. 260-62.) Keep was, presumably, a local builder.
To Anne Popham*
7 August 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dear Andy,
You see this time it's me who delays weeks or is it months before answering. You didn't have to be so apologetic--I know only too well how difficult it is to answer a letter and how they rise up and smite one day after day.
I thought over your letter a lot, and I expect you're right. You're young and you'll probably find someone who suits you. Any waydeg let's say no more about it.1 I hope I shall see you when I am back in London (probably about October). I heard from Ruth2 about a week ago, as she kindly took in and is looking after some books which were being sent and which I didn't want to follow me up here. We're all flourishing here and Richard is beginning to talk a little though he's still far more interested in doing things with his hands and is becoming very clever with tools. My sister is here and does the cooking, and Susan looks after Richard and looks after the house, while I do the gardening and carpentering. For two months I did no writing at all, then last month I did write an article,3 and I may begin a novel before returning to London but I'm not tying myself down. I had to have a good rest after years of hackwork, and it has done me a lot of good. So far I haven't even had a cold while here, in spite of getting wet to the skin several times a week. We have to catch or shoot a lot of our food, but I like doing that and as a matter of fact we feed better than one can do in London now. This is a nice big house, and if I can get a long lease which would make it worth while to furnish it more completely and instal an electric light plant, one could make it really comfortable. In any case I'm going to plant fruit trees this autumn and hope I shall be here to get the benefit of them. It's also a great treat to be in a place where Richard can run in and out of the house without being in any danger of getting run over. The only danger for him here is snakes, but I kill them whenever I see one anywhere near the house. This winter I shall send him to the nursery school if there is a vacancy.
Let me hear from you again if you can get round to writing.
Yours
George
[XVIII, 3045, pp. 370-1; typewritten]
1.For Anne Popham's reminiscences of this exchange, see Remembering Orwell, pp. 166-67.
2.Ruth Beresford, who shared the flat in Canonbury Square with Anne Popham immediately below Orwell's flat.
3.Possibly 'Politics vs. Literature', Polemic (XVIII, 3089, pp. 417-32.) To Celia Kirwan*
17 August 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dearest Celia,
How marvellous of you to get the brandy and send it off on your own initiative. I enclose cheque for PS9-15-0. I hope you weren't put to any other expense about it--if so please let me know.
I forgot to say, I think one or two of the titles (of pamphlets and so on) in the Swift essay 1 are incorrect, as I was quoting them from memory, but so long as I see a galley proof it will be easy to put this right.
I am sorry you are pining away in London. It must be lousy being there at this time of year, especially if you have been having such marvellous weather as we have had here for the last week or two. I still haven't done any work to speak of, there always seems to be so much to do of other kinds, and the journeys one makes are quite astonishing. Susan's child came up here yesterday, and I was supposed to go to Glasgow to meet her. I set out the day before yesterday morning, but punctured my motor bike on the way and thus missed the boat. I then got a lift first in a lorry, then in a car, and crossed the ferry to the next island in hopes there would be a plane to Glasgow, however the plane was full up, so I took a bus on to Port Ellen, where there would be a boat on Friday morning. Port Ellen was full to the brim owing to a cattle show, all the hotels were full up, so I slept in a cell in the police station along with a lot of other people including a married couple with a perambulator. In the morning I got the boat, picked the child up and brought her back, then we hired a car for the first 20 miles and walked the last five home. This morning I got a lift in a motor boat to where my bike was, mended the puncture and rode home--all this in 3 days. I think we are going to get a motor boat, ie. a boat with an outboard engine, as it is the best way of travelling here when the weather is decent. At present we have only a little rowing boat which is good for fishing but which you can't go far out to sea in. We go fishing nearly every night, as we are partly dependent on fish for food, and we have also got two lobster pots and catch a certain number of lobsters and crabs. I have now learned how to tie up a lobster's claws, which you have to
do if you are going to keep them alive, but it is very dangerous, especially when you have to do it in the dark. We also have to shoot rabbits when the larder gets low, and grow vegetables, though of course I haven't been here long enough to get much return from the ground yet, as it was simply a jungle when I got here. With all this you can imagine that I don't do much work--however I have actually begun my new book and hope to have done four or five chapters by the time I come back in October. I am glad Humphrey 2 has been getting on with his--I wonder how The Heretics 3 sold? I saw Norman Collins 4 gave it rather a snooty review in the Observer.
Richard now wears real shorts, which another child had grown out of, and braces, and I have got him some real farm labourer's boots. He has to wear boots here when he goes far from the house, because if he has shoes he is liable to take them off, and there are snakes here. I think you would like this place. Do come any time if you want to. But if you do, try and let me know in advance (it means writing about a week in advance, because we only get letters twice a week here), so that I can arrange about hiring a car. Also, don't bring more luggage than, say, a rucksack and a haversack, but on the other hand do bring a little flour if you can. We are nearly always short of bread and flour here since the rationing. You don't want many clothes so long as you have a raincoat and stout boots or shoes. Remember the boats sail on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and you have to leave Glasgow about 8 am. I expect to be here till about the 10th of October.
With love
George
PS. You might ask Freddie5 from me, now that he has a chair in Mental Philosophy, who has the chair in non-mental philosophy.
[XVIII, 3051, pp. 375-7; typewritten]
1.'Politics vs. Literature', Polemic (for which Celia Kirwan worked as an editorial assistant).
2.Humphrey Slater,* then editor of Polemic.
3.Orwell had written a reader's report for Fredric Warburg on Slater's The Heretics. It was published in April 1946. The report does not appear to have survived.
4.For Norman Collins see 17.3.36, n. 4.
5.A. J. Ayer (1910-89), who had just been appointed Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London. (See also 13.4.46, n. 5.) To George Woodcock*
2 September 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dear George,
Thanks ever so for the tea--it came just at the right moment because this week the whole of the nearest village is being brought here in lorries to get in the field of corn in front of our house, and of course tea will have to flow like water while the job is on.1 We have been helping the crofter who is our only neighbour with his hay and corn, at least when rain hasn't made it impossible to work. Everything is done here in an incredibly primitive way. Even when the field is ploughed with a tractor the corn is still sown broadcast, then scythed and bound up into sheaves by hand. They seem to broadcast corn, ie. oats, all over Scotland, and I must say they seem to get it almost as even as can be done by a machine. Owing to the wet they don't get the hay in till about the end of September or even later, sometimes as late as November, and they can't leave it in the open but have to store it all in lofts. A lot of the corn doesn't quite ripen and is fed to the cattle in sheaves like hay. The crofters have to work very hard, but in many ways they are better off and more independent than a town labourer, and they would be quite comfortable if they could get a bit of help in the way of machinery, electrical power and roads, and could get the landlords off their backs and get rid of the deer. These animals are so common on this particular island that they are an absolute curse. They eat up the pastures where there ought to be sheep, and they make fencing immensely more expensive than it need be. The crofters aren't allowed to shoot them, and are constantly having to waste their time dragging carcases of deer down from the hill during the stalking season. Everything is sacrificed to the brutes because they are an easy source of meat and therefore profitable to the people who own them. I suppose sooner or later these islands will be taken in hand, and then they could either be turned into a first-rate area for dairy produce and meat, or else they would support a large population of small peasants living off cattle and fishing. In the 18th century the population here was 10,000--now less than 300.
My love to Inge. I hope to be back in London about October 13th.
Yours
George
[XVIII, 3058, p. 385; typewritten]
1.In his study of Orwell, The Crystal Spirit, Woodcock explains this gift of tea and comments on Orwell's description of life on Jura: 'Knowing Orwell's passion for tea, my wife and I, coffee drinkers, would save up our rations and every now and again send him a packet of Typhoo Tips, which produced the dark, strong brew he liked. One of these packets . . . evoked a letter in which Orwell described existence on Jura; it reflected the intense interest he always took in the concrete aspects of life--particularly rural life--and also in its social overtones' (p. 36). The tea ration had been increased in July 1945 from 2 ounces a week to 21/2, but it was still a meagre amount, especially for someone who drank as much strong tea as Orwell did. Although Orwell was desperate for tea, his first thought on receiving this gift was that he could share it with the harvesters.
To Rayner Heppenstall*
19 September 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dear Rayner,
The version of Boule de Suif I was projecting would be a featurisation of the story, with a narrator but no critical talk or biographical material, so I suppose it would be 'drama.' If you can interest the relevant person, you might say that the way I would want to do it would be the way in which we did various stories for the Eastern Service in 1943, and also that version of Little Red Riding Hood which you kindly placed for me. In my experience the BBC, although making a minimum of 6 copies of everything, can never find a back number of a script, but the stories I would like to draw attention to are Crainquebille (Anatole France,) The Fox (Silone,) and A Slip Under the Microscope (H.G. Wells.) We did all these in featurised form sticking to the text of the story as closely as possible and not mucking it up with meaningless patches of music, but dramatising all the dialogue and using a number of different voices. If anyone is interested enough to look up these scripts, you might tell him I had to write them in desperate haste, as I was overwhelmed with administrative work, and in each case could give only a day to the job. I could do it better if I were doing it for the Home Service and had a bit more time.1
As to Pontius Pilate, I am not pining to write a script about him, but I have always felt he has had a raw deal and thought one might make a good dialogue out of it somehow.2 Boule de Suif is a test of whether the C programme 3 is really nothing barred. Incidentally I don't believe it has ever been well translated into English (at least the only translation I have seen was damnable).
I expect to be back in London on October 13th. The weather here has been shocking for about a fortnight past and they are having a fearful job to get the harvest in. We stove in the bottom of our boat in the recent stormy weather. However we had had a good season's fun out of it and a lot of fish and lobsters, and next year I shall get a bigger one with a motor on it, which will help solve our transport problem. Transport is really the only big problem here, and wouldn't be a problem in normal times when one could lay in several months' stores at one go. Even as it is we have done better in food and fuel than one can in London, but at the expense of a good deal of labour and some terrifying journeys. Hoping to see you in town. My love to Margaret.
Yours
Eric
[XVIII, 3074, pp. 400-1; typewritten]
1.On Rayner Heppenstall's behalf, June Seligmann sent Orwell's suggestion to Laurance Gilliam, Director of Features, on 24 September 1946 who passed it on to the Drama Department. His memorandum is annotated, 'Sorry--no can do!' and the answer is marked for Heppenstall's attention. Except for Little Red Riding Hood, broadcast in BBC Children's Hour, the scripts to which Orwell refers were written when he w
as broadcasting to India.
2.In a letter to Heppenstall on 5 September 1946 (XVIII, 3059, p. 386-7), Orwell had in mind an imaginary conversation between Pontius Pilate and Lenin - for 'one could hardly make it J.C.'!
3.What was to become the Third Programme of the BBC, now Radio 3. Laurence Brander, the BBC's Intelligence Officer for India when Orwell worked for the BBC, wrote in 1954 that Orwell 'was the inspiration of that rudimentary Third Programme which was sent out to the Indian student' (George Orwell, pp. 8-9).
To Humphrey Slater*
26 September 1946
Barnhill
Isle of Jura
Dear Humphrey,
Can you come to lunch at the flat on Sunday October 13th, and if possible bring one of our mutual friends with you? I am getting back to town that morning, but my sister is arriving with Richard a day or two earlier. I think there'll be a goose for lunch, unless it somehow goes astray on the journey. We shall have one goose left when we leave, which we shall take with us or send on ahead, and if so we'll need someone to help eat it.