George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, essayist and journalist. Born in British India in 1903, he was educated at Eton before joining the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. His experiences there contributed to his rejection of imperialism. After returning to Europe, he lived among poorer communities in Britain and France and wrote about poverty, class and working conditions.

Orwell fought with a militia aligned with the POUM during the Spanish Civil War, an experience described in Homage to Catalonia. During the Second World War, he worked for the BBC and later became literary editor of Tribune. His best-known books, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, examine authoritarian rule, propaganda and the manipulation of language and truth. Orwell also produced influential essays on politics, literature and clear writing. He died of tuberculosis in London in 1950.