George Orwell: A Life in Letters (85 page)

Thanks so much for sending on the things. It doesn’t matter much about the book marked Essays. I can remember most of the items I wanted to note down, and I dare say the book itself will turn up among the papers which were sent to Pickfords. You might ask Avril whether, when she cleaned out my papers at Canonbury, she threw any notebooks away. There was another one, a dirty old red book,
¹
which had notes that I might need some time.

I am somewhat better I think. The streptomycin after only one dose had the most disastrous results, so they dropped it promptly. Evidently I had built up an allergy or something. However I’ve now got over that, and today for the first time I was allowed to sit out in a deck chair for an hour or two. When I’ll get to the point of putting some clothes on, lord knows. However, I’ve ordered myself a few new clothes, just to keep my morale up. I have discovered that there is a stream just near here with trout in it, so when I am somewhere near the point of getting up I’ll ask Avril to send me my fishing things. I do hope I’ll be able to get up to Jura for a few weeks some time in the summer, perhaps in August or so, and that the motor boat will be running then. I can’t make plans till I know more about my health, but I suppose I’ll have to spend this winter in some kind of institution, or at any rate near a doctor, and conceivably abroad. Probably somewhere like Brighton would be better, but in case of going abroad I’m taking steps to get my passport renewed. And after that I’m going to look about for a flat somewhere. It’s evident that from now on I must spend the winters in civilized places, and in any case Richard will soon have to spend most of his time on the mainland, because of schooling. But I needn’t remove anything from Barnhill, except perhaps my books, or some of them, because I think I could afford to furnish a second establishment now.

Inez [Holden] is coming to see me next week and Brenda
[Salkeld] the week after. I asked Inez to get me a birthday present for R., or at least to go to Gamage’s and see what they’ve got. I can’t think what to get him. I suppose he’s almost ripe for a pocket knife, but somehow I don’t fancy the idea.

I get visits occasionally from the people at Whiteway, [which] seems to be some sort of Anarchist colony run, or financed, by the old lady whose name I forget
²
who keeps the Freedom Bookshop. One of them is old Mat Kavanagh, whom you perhaps know, an old Irish I.R.A. Anarchist hairdresser, a figure at meetings for many years, who used to cut my hair in Fleet Street. He now tells me, what I hadn’t known, that when a person with my sort of hair comes into the shop there is a sort of competition not to deal with him. He said he always used to cut my hair because the others pushed me off onto him, feeling that I wasn’t the sort of person they could do themselves credit with.

Re. the cryptos and fellow travellers. I don’t think Laski
³
is a fellow traveller, much as he has aided them by his boosting of Russia.
In this country
he loathes the CP, because they menace his job. I suppose he imagines they are different elsewhere. I also think he is too integrally a part of the L[abour] P[arty], and too fond of being in an official position, to go over to the enemy if, for instance, we were at war with the
USSR
. The thing one can’t imagine Laski doing is breaking the law. Cole
⁴
I think should probably not be on the list, but I would be less certain of him than of Laski in case of a war. Martin
⁵
of course is far too dishonest to be outright a crypto or fellow-traveller, but his main influence is pro-Russian and is certainly intended to be so, and I feel reasonably sure he would quislingise in the case of a Russian occupation, if he had not managed to get away on the last plane. I think there
must
be two Niebuhrs.
⁶
I saw an unmistakeable fellow-traveller statement over that name, quoted in the
New Leader
about two years ago. The whole business is very tricky, and one can never do more than use one’s judgement and treat each case individually. I feel reasonably sure that Zilliacus,
⁷
for instance, is a crypto, but I would concede perhaps a twenty-five percent chance that he is not, whereas about Pritt
⁸
I feel completely certain. I feel less sure about John Platt-Mills
⁹
than about Z., but I feel pretty sure of Lester Hutchinson
¹⁰
after meeting him once. Mikardo
¹¹
is I should say simply a fool, but he is also one of those who think they see a chance of self-advancement in making mischief and are quite ready to flirt with the cryptos.

I’m just reading Ruth Fischer’s enormous book,
Stalin and German Communism
. It’s extremely good—not at all the sort of doctrinaire Trotskyism I would have expected. Have you seen the new Catholic magazine, the
Month
? It’s lousy. I also read Margarete Neumann’s book (the woman who gave evidence for Kravchenko), but it’s about the Russian and German concentration camps, not about the party squabbles in Germany. I must send some books home soon. They’re piling up fast here. Ask Avril to wipe the books now and then, will you, and to light a fire in those rooms. Otherwise the covers end by bending.

Love to all

Eric

[XX, 3600, pp. 87–90; typewritten]

1
.
Described, with contents, and reproduced at XX, 3729, pp. 231–3.

2
.
Lilian Wolfe (1875–1974), born in London, worked for twenty years as a Post Office telegraphist. She became a socialist and women’s suffragist in 1
907, and in 1913 an anarcho-syndicalist. She was active in the anti-war movement, 1914–16, and was imprisoned, as was her companion, Thomas Keell (1866–1938). After the war she ran health-food shops in London and Stroud, living in the main at the anarchist colony at Whiteway, some five miles from Cranham; Richard stayed there when visiting his father.
She earned enough to keep her husband and son and support the anarchist journal,
Freedom
.
In 1966 the anarchist movement gave her a holiday in the United States as a ninetieth birthday present. After a lifetime devoted to anarchism she died at her son’s home in Cheltenham at ninety-eight (Nicolas Walter’s account of her life,
Freedom
, Centenary Number, 1986, 23–24).

3
.
Harold Laski (see
20.9.47,
n. 1). Re list of crypto-Communists and fellow-travellers, see
6.4.49
,
n. 1.

4
.
G. D. H. Cole (1889–1959), economist and prolific author; his books include
The Intelligent Man’s Guide to the Post-War World
(1947) and
The Meaning of Marxism
(1948), based on his
What Marx Really Meant
(19
34).

5
.
Kingsley Martin (1887–1969), then editor of the
New Statesman (
see
9.2.38
,
n. 1).

6
.
One was presumably Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–197
1), American theologian and professor at Union Theological Seminary, 1930–60, for a time a socialist and pacifist; later a supporter of the war against Hitler. Regarding a second Niebuhr, it is possible that there is confusion between Reinhold and his brother, Helmut Richard (1894–1962), ordained a minister of the Evangelical & Reformed Church in 1916 and from 1931 pursued a distinguished career at Yale. He was involved in the union of the Congregational and the Evangelical & Reformed churches.

7
.
Konni Zilliacus (see
2.1.48
n. 5).

8
.
Dennis Noel Pritt (1887–1972), Labour and then Independent Labour MP and chairman of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR.

9
.
John Platt-Mills (1906–2001
), a New Zealander and unshakeable apologist for Stalin; he disbelieved the Soviets committed atrocities even after Khrushchev denounced Stalin in 1956. Expelled from the Labour Party, 1948.

10
.
Hugh Lester Hutchinson (1904–1950), journalist and author, studied in Switzer
land and at Edinburgh University, and served in the Navy,
1942–44. He was elected Labour
MP
in 1945 but was expelled in 1949 for his criticism of the Labour government’s foreign policy.

11
.
Ian Mikardo (1908–1
993), management consultant, author of
Centralised Control of Industry
(1942), and politician. He was a left-wing Labour
MP
, 1945–59 and 1964–87, and was a prominent follower of Aneurin Bevan and a rumbustious debater with a strong sense of comedy. He was often considered to be unduly sympathetic to Communism, but his passionate Zionism ensured that he never forgot or forgave Stalin for his treatment of Jews. He was much appreciated by fellow
MP
s of all parties in his role as ‘unofficial bookmaker’ to Parliament, offering odds on contentious issues and the fortunes of political figures.

To Dr Gwen O’Shaughnessy*

17 April 1949

The Cotswold Sanatorium

Cranham

Dear Gwen,

I have been meaning for ages to write to you. Among other things I owe you money for some things you got for Richard. I can’t remember what they were but I have an idea they included an overcoat. Please let me know and I’ll pay you.

I have been here since January and am getting a little better I think. I was really very ill in December, and again recently. I had a relapse and they decided to try another go of streptomycin, with dreadful results after only one dose. I suppose I had built up a resistance to it or something. However the last few days I have felt better and have even been sitting out in a deck chair a little. They can’t really do much for me except keep me quiet. They can’t do the ‘thora’ operation (somewhat to my relief I must say) because you need one reliable lung which I haven’t got. It looks as though I shall be here till well into the summer, and if I do get up to Jura this year it will only be for a week or two in August or September. [
Must be surer about his he
a
lth
–
shall have to spend the winter somewhere warmer; Richard’s schooling; Barnhill.
]

I have remade my will,
¹
or rather I have sent the will I made some years ago to a solicitor to be redrafted, as it occurred to me it might not be in proper legal order. I have made you my executor, which I don’t think will involve much nuisance, as Richard Rees is my literary executor and he will see to all the business of dealing with publishers etc. I have also requested—this is one of the things that I want the solicitor to put in good order—that you and Avril shall decide between you about Richard’s upbringing, but that if there is any dispute the decision shall lie with you. I don’t suppose any disagreement is likely to arise between you. Avril is very fond of him and I know will want to bring him up, but if anything should happen to her, or if she should wish to live in any place where he can’t go to school, I wish you would take charge of him. I don’t think you would be financially out of pocket. I have put aside enough to see him through his childhood in a modest way. If I should die in the near future, there are considerable income tax claims to be met, but there is also a good deal of money coming in and I think the ‘estate’ would be easily cleared without encroaching on my savings. There should also be at any rate a small income from royalties for some years to come. I trust that all this won’t become urgent yet awhile, but after these two illnesses I don’t imagine I can last very many years, and I do want to feel that Richard’s future is assured. When I am able to get up to London I shall go and see Morlock
²
or somebody and get an expert opinion on how long I am likely to live. It is a thing doctors usually will not tell you, but it affects my plans, for future books as well as for Richard.

Richard was extremely well when I came away, and is evidently enjoying himself with the spring ploughing etc. He really seems quite fond of farm work. I have been trying to think what to give him for his birthday next month. I suppose he is almost old enough to have a pocket knife, but somehow I don’t fancy the idea. Avril says he has found out about money, ie. knows you can get sweets
³
for it, so I have started him on regular pocket money, which I hope may teach him the days of the week. I am going to get her to bring him down here to see me, but it is no use till I am out of bed.

I am not doing any work at present. I have cancelled everything, but I hope to start again next month. My new book is coming out in June, here and in the
USA
. I had a line from Doreen and George [Kopp*] announcing their new baby, but otherwise haven’t heard from them. Please remember me to the kids.

Yours

George

[XX, 3601, pp. 90–2
; typewritten]

1
.
Orwell made a new will on 18 January 1950, before the flight he hoped to make to Switzerland. At probate Orwell’s estate was valued at £9,908 14s 11d. He was owed £
520 he had lent to friends. Of course his royalties proved to be – and continue to be – considerable. For his will and estate (see XX, 3730, pp. 235–7).