Richard Blair | |
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 | |
| Born | 14 May 1944 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Trustee, patron |
| Spouse | Eleanor Blair (m. 1964) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Sonia Orwell (adoptive stepmother) |
Richard Horatio Blair (born 14 May 1944) [1] is a British trustee and patron who is the only (adopted) son of English author George Orwell. [2]
Blair was adopted by Eileen [3] and Eric Blair (George Orwell), [4] and after their deaths, lived with Avril Dunn (née Blair, Orwell's sister, his legal guardian) and Bill Dunn. [1]
Blair went to Loretto School from 1953 to 1960, and attended the agricultural colleges of Wiltshire College and Scotland's Rural College, before joining Massey Ferguson, where he worked in sales and marketing from 1975 to 1986. [5] He married Eleanor in 1964 and they have two sons. [6] Blair's stepmother Sonia died in 1980, passing the income from the Orwell estate on to him. [6] In 1985, Blair bought Loch Craignish (self-catering) Cottages, which he ran until 2008.
Having sold his business in 2008, Blair dedicated his time to preserving the memory of his father, George Orwell, which he continues today. [7] At the beginning of 2009, Blair published his first account of his life with his father, [5] and spoke publicly for the first time about his childhood, in an interview with D.J. Taylor at the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards. [8] In the following year, he worked with a group of Orwell academics and enthusiasts, who inspired the founding of The Orwell Society, of which he is both patron and trustee. [9] Two years later, Blair was elected trustee of The Orwell Foundation and Orwell Youth Prize, of which he is a patron. [10]
After 2012, Blair increased his public activity by performing ceremonial roles such as unveiling plaques, [11] [12] presenting literary prizes, [13] opening international events, [14] [15] making guest appearances on radio and television, [16] [17] and dedicating a statue to his father installed outside Broadcasting House. [18] Blair is also engaged in more hands-on roles by hosting lectures through both The Orwell Society and The Orwell Foundation, [19] [20] publishing articles, [21] sponsoring the Orwell Prize, and conducting annual guided excursions to his childhood house at Barnhill, where his father wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four . [22]
In 2017, The Orwell Society initiated a series of engagements with the local community in Wigan to increase awareness of Orwell's motives in writing The Road to Wigan Pier , eighty years after the book was first published. [23] Blair participated as one of the narrators in Beyond Wigan Pier, an opera first performed in 2018 [24] aimed at attracting funding for students to attend Music & Drama school, and bringing the community closer to his father. [25]
Blair has revealed he is committed to stop fake Orwell quotes spreading on social media. [26]
In 2023 Blair was awarded Honorary Fellowship of University College London in recognition of his extensive support for the George Orwell Archive, which resides in the university's Special Collections department. [27] [28] [29] The majority of Orwell archive has been digitised and made available for everyone to access online. [30]
Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
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The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British attitudes towards socialism. Orwell states plainly that he himself is in favour of socialism, but feels it necessary to point out reasons why many people who would benefit from socialism, and should logically support it, are in practice likely to be strong opponents.
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and the youngest of the nine grandchildren of King George V and Queen Mary. He is 31st in the line of succession to the British throne, and the highest person on the list who is not a descendant of George VI, who was his uncle. At the time of his birth, he was 5th in line to the throne.
Sir Bernard Rowland Crick was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as opposed to a "politics of thought" or of ideology, and he held that "political power is power in the subjunctive mood." He was a leading critic of behaviouralism.
Robert McCredie May, Baron May of Oxford, HonFAIB was an Australian scientist who was Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, President of the Royal Society, and a professor at the University of Sydney and Princeton University. He held joint professorships at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. He was also a crossbench member of the House of Lords from 2001 until his retirement in 2017.
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Wigan Pier is an area around the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, south-west of the town centre. The name has humorous or ironic connotations since it conjures an image of a seaside pleasure pier, whereas Wigan is inland and a traditionally industrial town.
Lemn Sissay FRSL is a British author and broadcaster. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, was chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 until 2022, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. He was awarded the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize. He has written a number of books and plays.
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The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" ; between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".
George Tomline, referred to as Colonel Tomline, was an English politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for various constituencies. He was the son of William Edward Tomline and grandson of George Pretyman Tomline.
The bibliography of George Orwell includes journalism, essays, novels, and non-fiction books written by the British writer Eric Blair (1903–1950), either under his own name or, more usually, under his pen name George Orwell. Orwell was a prolific writer on topics related to contemporary English society and literary criticism, who has been declared "perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture." His non-fiction cultural and political criticism constitutes the majority of his work, but Orwell also wrote in several genres of fictional literature.
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The Orwell Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales, the aim of which is "to perpetuate the achievements of the British writer George Orwell (1903–1950)". The Foundation runs the Orwell Prize, the UK's most prestigious prize for political writing. In addition to the Prizes, the Orwell Foundation also runs free public events, debates and lectures and provides free online resources by and about Orwell. Since 2014, they have also run "Unreported Britain". The Orwell Youth Prize, a separate charity, work with young people aged 12–18 around the UK. The Orwell Youth Prize organises writing workshops for young people and runs a writing prize, culminating in an annual Celebration Day. The foundation is based at University College London, and is a registered charity no. 1161563.
The Orwell Society is a literary society and a UK registered charity. It was founded in 2011 with the aim of promoting the understanding and appreciation of the life and work of George Orwell. Its patron is Richard Blair, George Orwell's adopted son.
Dione Patricia Mary Venables, also known by her pen name as DG Finlay, was an English novelist and publisher who also founded The Orwell Society.
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