Q 01/05

What was George Orwell's real name?

A) Edward Alan Barnes

B) Eric Arthur Blair

C) Ernest Alfred Bell

D) Evelyn Arthur Blake

Answer · why

B) Eric Arthur Blair

Eric Arthur Blair is the name on his gravestone, which reads 'Here lies Eric Arthur Blair' with no mention of George Orwell.

Q 02/05

In which country was Orwell born?

A) Ceylon

B) England

C) Burma

D) India

Answer · why

D) India

India: he was born in Motihari in 1903, and his mother took him to England when he was one year old.

Q 03/05

Orwell's father was a colonial civil servant in which department?

A) The Railways Department

B) The Opium Department

C) The Salt Department

D) The Forestry Department

Answer · why

B) The Opium Department

The Opium Department kept his father abroad, and apart from a brief 1907 visit, Orwell did not see him again for years.

Q 04/05

Which future writer did Orwell first meet at St Cyprian's prep school in Eastbourne?

A) Evelyn Waugh

B) Graham Greene

C) Cyril Connolly

D) Anthony Powell

Answer · why

C) Cyril Connolly

Cyril Connolly beat him to the school's Harrow History Prize, but later, as editor of Horizon, published several of Orwell's essays.

Q 05/05

When Orwell first met his childhood sweetheart Jacintha Buddicom, what was he doing?

A) Shooting at tin cans

B) Reading poetry high up an apple tree

C) Standing on his head in a field

D) Fishing in a river

Answer · why

C) Standing on his head in a field

Standing on his head in a field, he explained, got you noticed far more than being the right way up.