George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 — 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. Noted as a novelist and critic as well as a political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among the most widely admired English-language essayists of the 20th century. He is best known for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general, and Stalinism in particular: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both were written and published during the cold war, towards the end of his life.

George Orwell in Supervolcano
Over supper one evening, Colin Ferguson, his son Marshall along with Colin's second wife Kelly got into a discussion of tyranny, revolutions, and their aftermaths. Kelly quoted "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others" which Marshall was surprised to be able to identify as coming from George Orwell's Animal Farm. He failed to identify Orwell but said it was by the same guy who wrote 1984. Colin said that while real 1984 wasn`t great, it was better than Orwell's.

George Orwell in "Hindsight"
Mark Gordian's novel Watergate was compared by many critics to George Orwell's 1984.

George Orwell in The Gladiator
Although George Orwell had written 1984 as an indictment of the excesses of Communism, the Soviet Union reinterpreted it as an indictment of fascism. In the 2090s, Hoxha Polytechnic in the Italian People's Republic taught Orwell's book as part of its literature curriculum. When pupils asked about the totalitarian regime in the book calling its official ideology "English Socialism," the teacher answered that the Nazis had called themselves "National Socialists" but were not really socialists, either.

George Orwell in Worldwar
Eric Blair was the producer of the Indian section of programming on the BBC during World War II and the war with the Race.

Blair had led an interesting life before arriving at that position, among other things, serving in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists, but was sickened by the Communists' behavior, and left.

When World War II began, Blair took a job in the BBC's Eastern Section. He continued at this post when the Race invaded in 1942. It was here that Blair was introduced to Moishe Russie. The astute medical student noted to Blair the symptoms of tuberculosis when Blair began to cough almost uncontrollably.

Later in life, Russie reflected on his meeting Blair and shared his sentiment that,"The Soviets and the Nazis were a boot stamping of the face of human civilization."

Blair and Russie's path crossed several times in London, as Russie began broadcasting propaganda for Britain. When the Race attempted an invasion of Britain proper, Blair armed himself and joined in the defense of London.

One of Blair's propaganda coups was putting an Indian princess on the air to describe Race occupation of her homeland. He mused on the convenient alliance it was: he, the Socialist, teaming up with royalty.

Literary Comment
Given the number of references to Blair's tuberculosis, it is probably the case that he died more or less on the same schedule as OTL.

George Orwell in The War That Came Early
In early 1939 a tall, pale, skinny fellow with a dark mustache and hair who had to come from Ireland or England exchanged nods with Chaim Weinberg in Tortosa as the International Brigades were being pulled from the Ebro front to Madrid. Weinberg was surprised that such an obvious foreigner would prefer to hang with Catalan anarchist militias rather than with other Internationals.

Literary comment
In OTL, George Orwell left Spain shortly after being injured in the throat by a sniper bullet in the Aragonese front, in May 1937. Turtledove is clearly aware of this, since a Nationalist officer is injured later in an identical way in West and East. The discrepancy is in consequence deliberate and meant to set a joke, though Orwell's continued service could be explained in universe as one of the few apparent ripple effects caused by the Nationalist side being lead by José Sanjurjo instead of Francisco Franco.