The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius

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An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature.

The Lion and the Unicorn: An Anniversary Commemoration The Lion and the Unicorn: An Anniversary Commemoration

It is very rare to meet a foreigner, other than an American, who can distinguish between English and Scots or even English and Irish. Still, the sums raised for the various aid-Spain funds would not equal five per cent of the turnover of the football pools during the same period. Decades before Hitler was ever heard of, the word ‘Prussian’ had much the same significance in England as ‘Nazi’ has today.In the Scottish version (shown right) the two have switched places and both are crowned, and the lion on top is coloured red. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture. But it plays its part in the English mystique, and the intellectuals who have tried to break it down have generally done more harm than good.

Orwell: The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the George Orwell: The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the

George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (London: Penguin Books, 1982 [1941]), p. Orwell’s essay on ‘British Cookery’ from 1946 talks about various British delicacies, including pancakes (‘British pancakes are thinner than those of most countries, and are always eaten with lemon juice’). Aleks spent just over a year telling the first 369 words of the novel, one word at a time, in photographs. The place to look for the germs of the future England is in light-industry areas and along the arterial roads. There are, heaven knows, plenty of army officers who would be only too glad to introduce some such thing.That could not happen if these people were the cynical scoundrels that they are sometimes declared to be.