Not Calling A Spade A Spade

Radio Record, 12 June 1936, Page 26

Not Calling A Spade A Spade

George Orwell’s Latest Creation Is Domestic Candour-And Not Just of Aspidistras

"KO 22P the Aspidistra Flying,’ by George Orwell, is the story of a drab young man, a would-be ‘poet, striving after Socialism and realism, but without the necessary brains to get there. Underneath all. his so-called theories he possesses an outlook really Victorian, and when the girl he loves tells him she is going to have his illegitimate baby it is he who insists upon getting married. He is thrilled at the thought of becoming a father, and immediately accepts a post as a writer of slogans for a firm of advertisers, and in this way he keeps the aspidistra flying. "The only thing a woman ever wants is money for a house of her own and

two babies and Dragl furniture and an aaydistra. " . « You talk a great deal about aspidistras," said -Ravelston. ."They’re a dashed important subject," said Gordon. Compton Mackenzie, writing for the "Daily Mail," says of Mr. Orwell that no realistic writer during the last five years has produced books which can compare With his in directness, vigour, "courage and vitality. In my humble opinion, Mr. Orwell doesn’t merely call a spade a spade, but, as a bishop of my acquaintance once said of a miner he’d heard talking on a stage coach, "He calls a spade a damn bloody shovel."