Darcy Moore's Blog

“It was now absolutely necessary to find work, and I remembered a friend of mine, a Russian waiter named Boris, who might be able to help me. I had first met him in the public ward of a hospita...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/04/29/orwell-the-russian-captain/

I knew a man, I knew a man As thin as any grudging crow. “Eros with Chilblains” was not the only poem Ruth Pitter (1897-1992) wrote about George Orwell. “The Crow”, published in The Bridg...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/04/17/the-crow/

It was with great expectation that I sat down to read Paul Theroux’s latest novel, Burma Sahib, the story of Eric Blair’s experience as a colonial policeman during the 1920s. A much experie...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/03/14/burma-sahib-a-personal-review/

“… sufficient evidence remains to be able to assert with confidence that Orwell was in male line descent from Alexander de Blair who flourished in the first half of the 13th century.”    ...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/28/orwells-scottish-ancestry/

George Orwell was employed in the Indian Section of the BBC’s Eastern Service during World War Two but no recording of his voice has survived. A cache of his BBC radio scripts was discovered fo...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/19/lost-orwell-bbc-radio-transcript-found/

“Miss Elaine Limouzin’s recital at the Salle Erard on Thursday evening, May 4th, drew a large audience, which thoroughly appreciated the very agreeable entertainment… Miss Limouzin has an e...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2024/01/14/orwells-family-aunt-nellie/

In 1930, Ruth Pitter (1897-1992) wrote a comic poem parodying her relationship with the man who was to become George Orwell. “Eros with Chilblains”, Pitter’s ironic reaction to Eric Blair�...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/22/eros-with-chilblains/

Why were two of the earliest pieces of Orwell’s journalism, written in Paris during the late 1920s when he was still E.-A. Blair, published by a newspaper in Saigon?  E.-A. Blair published fo...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/10/06/orwell-la-tribune-indochinoise/

“Once a biographer has mastered his subject, sucked it dry as an ant does an aphid and stored its own juice in his own book, the rest of us need no longer bother our heads about inconvenient no...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/24/orwell-the-map-the-territory/

“When Eric returned to England in 1927, he spent a fortnight with Auntie Lilian at Ticklerton, where Prosper and Guiny were then staying. But completely unavoidable circumstances prevented me f...

https://www.darcymoore.net/2023/09/09/eric-cini-tom/