Event Description
When we picture Orwell, we imagine an angular, moustachioed sceptic crouched over a typewriter, who – between puffs on his cigarette – composes effortless streams of prose, unadorned but explosive. We see a man with ‘Important Things to Say’ about: the slow creep of authoritarianism; the consequences of all-seeing tech; and the fragility of truth.
Much less often do we see him as a person caught up in the mundane realities of everyday life. And yet Orwell’s work thrums with the quotidian: the smell of boiled cabbage, the chill of an unheated flat in early spring, the rumbling of old pipes.
In A Bright Cold Day, Waddell, Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature at the University of Birmingham, reveals how the principles that govern us begin in the everyday. From waking and showering to breakfast, work, lunch, the pub, sleep and dreaming, Orwell was never dulled to the routines of living. And in the details of the day, we can appreciate how power, money, freedom and choice play out, not just for Orwell’s literary characters, but for us all.
Tickets: £7 (entitles the buyer to £3 off the book at the event; one book per ticket) – available online at Ticketsource or on 01684 368187
