Orwell
The Authorized Biography

It is a credit to this biography that I almost started crying on the bus when he died. While Shelden occasionally fawns over his subject, the book is full to bursting with anecdotes and quotations from Orwell and those who knew him. Highly recommended for casual fans of Orwell -- you might, like me,......more

Next best after Bernard Crick’s biography.......more

One of the best literary biographies I've ever had the pleasure to consume.......more

A wonderful read. Yes, as others have noted, this is a long book, but so varied and curious were the stages of Orwell's life that, if anything, I found myself wanting more not less. That Sheldon is himself a writer of unusual clarity makes him a perfect match for someone like Orwell who seemed espec......more

This comes across as a fair and balanced view of the life of George Orwell (though the writer does struggle to hide his dislike of Sonia, Orwell's second wife). I suppose the trouble any Orwell biographer faces is that Orwell put so much of himself into both his fiction and non-fiction works that a......more