The fascinating Sunderland, South Shields and Newcastle connections to Animal Farm author George Orwell
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The letters of George Orwell’s North East-born wife have been published in a new book.
Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words: The Complete Letters of George Orwell's Wife is the new book by University of Sunderland professor Angela Smith and Sylvia Topp, from Ontario in Canada.
An insight through 65 of Eileen’s letters
It’s a superb insight and includes 65 of Eileen’s correspondences.
The book looks at how she was an accomplished writer herself and how she was a creative influence on his work.
Eileen had a fascinating background of her own. She was born in South Shields in 1905 and her father Laurence was a customs officer who worked both in the borough as well as Sunderland. She was a pupil at Sunderland Church High School.
Her brother, who was given the name Eric, was a lookout in South Shields during World War I and graduated from medical school in Newcastle in 1923. He later became a highly respected cardiothoracic surgeon.
A brilliant student who married in the 1930s
Eileen was a brilliant student who won exhibition prizes and scholarships before becoming the carer for her mother Mary when her father died of tuberculosis in 1929.
She met Orwell at a party at Parliament Hill in Hampstead in 1935 and they ‘spent the rest of the evening in deep conversation.’ The couple had a ‘surprisingly brief courtship’ before they married.
She died in 1945 in Newcastle while Orwell was with the Allied forces on a march to Cologne.
“Through her correspondence, we gain an intimate portrait of their marriage, daily life, and the creative partnership behind some of the twentieth century’s most important literature,” said a spokesman for the new work.
Eileen’s significant role in ‘Animal Farm’
The book also includes interviews with people who tell Eileen’s significant role in shaping the final style and writing of Animal Farm.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of Eileen’s marriage to Orwell, and also the 90th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, which Eileen took part in during the first half of 1937.
Angela Smith is Emeritus Professor of Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland, and Visiting Reader at the University of Strathclyde.
From 2021-25, she ran the Rebel Women of Sunderland project which drew attention to the remarkable women associated with Sunderland, including Eileen.
Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words: The Complete Letters of George Orwell's Wife is available now and can be ordered from Amazon or Bookshop.org, or ordered through any bookshop. It is £24.99 and is published by Palgrave Macmillan.