The lion and the unicorn

A fascinating time capsule of the hopes and thoughts of a time and place.

Reading this at this point in time, July 2020, it's impossible not to see the parallels between the capitalist response to the rise of Nazism and the capitalist response to the current pandemic.

Also, the book makes an interesting case for patriotism and socialism being completely intertwined. Much moreso than conservatism and patriotism.

3.75 Hard to judge, because of the time it was written. Orwell grasped the need to transform the Empire into a federation of peoples that served the benefit of all, but both his English exceptionalism and his optimism are a bit hard to swallow - likewise his condemnation of most English left-wing movement, though the latter isn't completely off either. The grasp of foreign politics and the dynamics of the still unfolding Second World War on the other hand is impressive for the time, as is the analysis of the English class structure. Not a must-read, but interesting all the same.

Really good, and of a much more optimistic tone than that of 1984