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Writer's picturePaul Marsden

Orwell's Homage to Catalonia




I have just finished George Orwell's entrancing glimpse into the Spanish Civil War in his Home to Catalonia. He clearly struggles to understand the internicine warfare between the Republican forces whilst they try and defeat Franco's Fascists. It is a first hand account of his six months in Spain signing up for the POUM militia (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Spanish - Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; Catalan - Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista).

Orwell suffered lice, poor food rations, few weapons (and those that were issued were rusting twenty old rifles) and at the end being shot through the throat and miraculously surviving. Finally, when POUM was outlawed by the Repulican government, he was on a wanted list, sleeping rough and had to leave Spain.

He tells the story honestly and repeatedly qualifies that his is just one point of view in a messy conflict. However, his style is plain and fresh and his descriptions of 'frosty bullets' zinging overhead in a cold morning bring the action alive. He details what it is like to be hit by a bullet, what goes through your mind, wondering who shot him and that it was a good shot!

I also have to recognise Orwell's supportive wife, Eileen Blair, who remained with him in Spain and actively warned him that he might be arrested. She accompanied Orwell on a risky prison visit to see a comrade. She had as much courage and once had her bedroom raided by six police officers and calmly stayed in bed for two hours as they forensically went through all their belongings.

This book is highly recommended.

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