Books in the Orwell's Essays series

In Politics and the English Language, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, 'is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind'. This essay is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play in political language.

In Why I Write, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the works we remember him for. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell's mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writers' oeuvre.

In The Prevention of Literature, Orwell discusses the effect of the ownership of the press on the accuracy of reports of events, and takes aim at political language, which 'consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together.' It is a stirring cry for freedom from censorship, which Orwell says must start with the writer themselves.

On Reading collects together Orwell's short essays on books - 'Bookshop Memories', 'Good Bad Books', 'Nonsense Poetry', 'Books vs. Cigarettes' and 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer' - giving a rounded view of the great writer's opinions on the literature of his day, and the vessels in which it was sold.