Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic socialism. In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Biography
Early years
thumb|Orwell's birthplace in [[Motihari, Bihar, India|left]]
alt=|thumb|The Blair family home at [[Shiplake, Oxfordshire|left]]
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (now Bihar), British India, into what he described as a "lower-upper-middle class" family. His great-great-grandfather Charles Blair was a wealthy slave-owning country gentleman and absentee owner of two Jamaican plantations; hailing from Dorset, he married Lady Mary Fane, daughter of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland. His grandfather Thomas Richard Arthur Blair was an Anglican clergyman. Orwell's mother, Ida Mabel Blair (née Limouzin), grew up in Moulmein, Burma, where her French father, Francis "Frank" Limouzin was involved in speculative ventures. Eric had two sisters: Marjorie, five years older; and Avril, five years younger. When Eric was one year old, his mother took him and Marjorie to England.