WIFEDOM: Anna Funder
WIFEDOM
by Anna Funder
While reading this, I kept alternating between extremes of admiration and infuriation. Admiration for its subject and fury that I'd never heard about her before. The rather tedious ‘behind every Great Man’ cliche is too pale an epitaph to apply to the brilliant Eileen Blair, George Orwell’s first wife and Funder's muse. Oxford educated, she abandoned her own career to play a pivotal role in launching Orwell’s, even following him to Spain and contributing to the civil war effort. Never heard of her?
If, like me, you're an Orwell fan, you need to read this book.
- Reviewed by Kat
