Few writers can boast the brilliant legacy of George Orwell, both in his contributions to the English language—Big Brother, Newspeak, Doublethink—and his profound influence on world literature. In George Orwell, Gordon Bowker gives us the man behind the words: his early childhood and schooling at Eton; his deliberate plunge into poverty; his experiences in the Spanish Civil War; his complex, sometimes reckless sex life; and the extraordinary success of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Meticulously researched, this is the most fully realized account yet of this pivotal literary figure.