You are invited to a lunchtime reading group to discuss the works of George Orwell.

The Orwell Reading Group meets every month to discuss a book by Orwell. On 24 October, we will be talking about his pessimistic 1939 novel ‘Coming Up For Air’.

The story follows George Bowling, a 45-year-old man who’s mortgaged, married and meandering back through childhood memories as war looms ever closer.

“Besides Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coming Up For Air ranks as small fry in Orwell’s oeuvre. Yet it endures… Like the fish-filled pool into which George Bowling peers as a boy in rural Oxfordshire, maybe it has hidden depths.” The Orwell Society

Anthony Burgess claimed to have met Orwell in a pub during the Second World War. Whether or not they actually met, the collection of books at the Burgess Foundation contains a complete set of Orwell’s novels and non-fiction works. The two writers have much in common: their genesis as colonial novelists; their status as English outsiders; their involvement in literary journalism; and their lasting reputation as inventors of nightmarish fictional futures.

This informal reading group is free and everyone is welcome. The discussion will last an hour, and you are welcome to join the staff of the Burgess Foundation for tea and biscuits afterwards.

If you would like to attend, please email graham@anthonyburgess.org or register on Eventbrite.