Eric Blair

‘What about human rights, Mark? Do we have any?’ 2050. Set in post-apocalyptic England, Tents of the Righteous imagines what it would be like to be a minister in charge of a government no longer subject to the democratic process and a free press, and what it would be like to be an individual living in such a state. Protagonist Mark Carradine is promoted to the post of Lord Commissioner of Health by the Lord Protector, the ruler of a totalitarian regime. Tasked with reducing the country’s population by 15 million to save resources, one of his top priorities is ‘Take Your Leave’, a euthanasia programme aimed at the elderly and disabled. Carradine, who follows his chilling instructions to the letter, has to cope with many threats to his personal and professional life. He is also ordered to bring his brother Aidan in from a remote part of the country, where he has been running a rebel Christian community, to become Archbishop of Canterbury and in essence a government spokesman. Aidan’s public duty is to underline the authority of the state and to give the churches full support to the Lord Protector. As in Orwell’s 1984, the state rules the population’s lives and has sole control of not only communication, but also the weapons. From Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia, it is easy to see how, when civil society collapses and people seek order and structure, a totalitarian society can evolve – even in a country with a long history of democratic government, such as the UK. Tents of the Righteousexamines such a state coming into existence and looks at how such circumstances can only serve to bring out the worse – but also sometimes the best – in people. It is a frightening scenario made all the more so because of the realistic way that the author has approached the subject. This work of speculative fiction is particularly relevant due to the current debate on government surveillance of internet traffic, reminding us of how easily individuals can cede information to the government. Eric Blair draws inspiration from 1984 and author J G Ballard, and also feels that John Le Carre’s portrayal of mutual suspicion and Ed Wilson’s The Midnight Swimming together sum up the state of paranoia that existed in the 50s and 60s.

Tents of the Righteous

George Orwell

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell, Eric Arthur Blair. George Orwell (1903-1950)The Road to Wigan Pier authored by George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) was an autobiographical novel by the author written in those days of his life that we call struggling days.He was moving around from one city to the other and it were those days when he left his job at the Booklovers' Corner. A photograph taken by the esteemed photographer 'Ceridwen' of the Booklover's corner displaying a hoarding of Orwell is included in this edition.

The Road to Wigan Pier

Reprint Edition of the 1938 Edition. Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting in the Spanish Civil War for the Republican army. Published in 1938 (about a year before the war ended) with little commercial success, it gained more attention in the 1950s following the success of Orwell's better-known works Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Covering the period between December 1936 and June 1937, Orwell recounts Catalonia's revolutionary fervor during his training in Barcelona, his boredom on the front lines in Aragon, his involvement in the May Days conflict back in Barcelona on leave, his getting shot in the throat back on the front lines, and his escape to France after the Republican Army was declared an illegal organization. The war was one of the defining events of his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."

Homage to Catalonia

Jacob Grimm

Wilhelm Grimm

Snow White is the most beautiful person in the kingdom. Her evil stepmother, the queen, is jealous and wants to get rid of Snow White. Can Snow White, with the help of the seven dwarfs, stay safe?

A Retelling of the Grimms' Fairy Tale

Snow White

2021 Facsimile of the 1945 Edition. This is now considered a classic Satire on dictatorship and one of Orwell's most enduring short novels. Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. The future, however, is far from certain as the drama plays out in actual events. A cautionary tale. Reviews "Animal Farm remains our great satire on the darker face of modern history."-Malcolm Bradbury "As lucid as glass and quite as sharp...[Animal Farm] has the double meaning, the sharp edge, and the lucidity of Swift."-Atlantic Monthly "A wise, compassionate, and illuminating fable for our times."-The New York Times "Orwell has worked out his theme with a simplicity, a wit, and a dryness that are close to La Fontaine and Gay, and has written in a prose so plain and spare, so admirably proportioned to his purpose, that Animal Farm even seems very creditable if we compare it with Voltaire and Swift."-Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker "Orwell's satire here is amply broad, cleverly conceived, and delightfully written."-San Francisco Chronicle "The book for everyone and Everyman, its brightness undimmed."-Ruth Rendell

A Fairy Story

Animal Farm

Pecos Bill is a cowboy who was raised by wild animals, once roped a whole heard of cattle at one time, and invented Texas chili. Learn more about this wild cowboy.

Pecos Bill

Enraged at not being invited to the princess's christening, a wicked fairy casts a spell that dooms the princess to sleep for one hundred years.

Eric Blair

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