George Orwell

He served in the imperial police in Burma before turning to writing; experiences of colonialism, poverty and the Spanish Civil War shaped his political and literary outlook. Best known for Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, he examined authoritarian power and the distortion of language and truth. His work spans fiction, essays and eyewitness reporting. Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up for Air belong to the earlier novels that preceded his worldwide fame.