Preston on Orwell (via Jim Jump)
Poster of the 2013 Len Crome Memorial Lecture in Manchester shows George Orwell speaking into a BBC microphone.
Our friends at the IBMT have posted Paul Preston’s lecture on George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, read at the Len Crome Memorial event by IBMT secretary Jim Jump (Preston himself was unable to attend). See the video below or on YouTube. Marshall Mateer provides some useful context for a U.S. audience:
Morecambe and Wise were a pair of English comedians who started in old time music hall and managed the transfer to television becoming not only its greatest stars in the 70/80s but also ‘national treasures’. Spike Milligan? An English/Irish/Indian comedian and writer who helped break the mold of comedy and paved the way for the Pythons etc. His humour is often described as ‘anarchic’ – but don’t think ‘anarchism’ – and surrealistic – but don’t think Dali/Bunuel. He wrote a memoir in his usual style one book of which was called ‘Hitler My Part in His Downfall’ which stills sells. Paul makes his points of comparison with Orwell from there …
Read the recent interview with Paul Preston in the Volunteer here.
