Orwell's blog

Yes indeed! Most of you who know me are aware that for long I have admired Orwell and his writing. In fact, this blog is named after Orwell's column in the Tribune. (see the right column). So it makes me very happy to learn that Orwell's diaries on a day to day basis is being published in real time as a blog (though shifted in time by 70 years) at orwelldiaries.wordpress.com. Thus today, 25 August 2008, we have an entry for 25 August 1938. A lot of it has a rural feel to it, since Orwell was then living in Kent in a sanatorium recovering from a bout of tuberculosis and he describes the crops, the birds, the blackberries. Seems not very different from a contemporary description, until he actually comes to a description of some major event during that era. Of course the war is not too far and so, very soon we might expect more political entries. What better way to enjoy Orwell! The blog also has convenient footnotes to describe items that may not be familiar to present day readers, including strangely enough a link from blackberries and geraniums to the appropriate Wikipedia entry. Aren't readers supposed to know about blackberries, even in this present highly urbanised world? Or perhaps, as the New York Times cattily suggests, to distinguish them from the type you press with your fingers! But surely not for geraniums?