A Patriot After All, 1940-1941

Volume 12 of The Complete Works of George Orwell For the twenty-month period of this volume, there are reproduced 123 book, 38 theatre, and 43 film reviews. Inside the Whale , Orwell's first collection of essays, and The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius are reprinted here. Later in that year he gave a series of broadcasts on literary criticism, the texts of which are reproduced. Throughout this period Orwell kept a wartime diary; its entries are here printed chronologically with his reviews, essays, and letters and it is here that Orwell makes the first reference to his wish to live on a Hebridean island. It was in 1941 that Orwell began his series of 'London Letters' for Partisan Review . The volume also includes Orwell's lecture notes for instructing members of his Home Guard platoon.