We had a lively, thought-provoking discussion about this book, concerning  women and men, their roles and relationships, misogyny and patriarchy. The author, Anna Funder, incorporated her personal, contemporary 'Wifedom', a welcome panacea for some of us following the brutality and insensitivity of George Orwell's (nee Eric Arthur Blair) cruel, selfish and neglectful treatment of Eileen O'Shaughnessy; Orwell's first wife from 1936 up to her painful, lonely death in 1945, at age 39, following a hysterectomy whilst seriously anaemic. 

(Did she suffer from undiagnosed endometriosis?).

We all agreed that it was a well-written biography,  thoroughly and painstakingly researched, illustrating Eileen's short life with this remarkable author, as she relinquished her own possible career as writer to enable, inspire, edit and support Orwell's writing. (How much she actually contributed to his literary success is unknown, but possibly a considerable amount). The time the Orwell's spent in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War, was extraordinarily illuminating, given her undercover, risky war work with the Independent Labour Party whilst Orwell was at the front. His account of this in 'Homage to Catalonia' excised Eileen, as he casually mentioned "my wife was working in Barcelona ".  Was this to protect her or minimise her courageous contribution to his life and work?

We concluded that Orwell was utterly vile in his treatment of women, and perhaps men, and questioned how women are attracted to egomaniacal men. Notwithstanding the societal advances from the 1930s in some respects many of these same oppressions and limitations still exist today. We all felt a bit of rage about this,  whilst recognising our luck in being who we are and where we are today. But this is far from the reality for millions of women across the world.

Do we feel differently about Orwell's writing? How come a man who was clear about the corrosive aspects of human oppression, control and exploitation, as in 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four',  failed to see or just plain ignored the damage he inflicted on his own wife?

We concurred that this was well worth reading and Anna Funder's 'Stasiland' (2003) was recommended as another excellent read. Clearly, the author has a deep interest in totalitarianism.