Recommendations from our site
“Orwell’s Roses says something fresh about George Orwell. It discovers Orwell as gardener, as the grower of fruit and vegetables as well as roses. It is also about Orwell’s family and its engagement with slavery and sugar in the Caribbean, and opium and imperialism in India. The book also deals with Orwell’s interest in the politics of genetics and his engagement with the politics of science in the Soviet Union and, indeed, in the UK.
But from there we get a much, much broader story about Orwell as an optimist, as somebody who’s concerned with aspects of life that are often hidden or don’t come to the surface, and a broader discussion of pleasure and nature and their place in the politics of the left. One particular theme concerns production and nature, following Orwell into the study of work, into the hidden worlds where things are made, including roses in Colombia, the conditions of the workers, the factory-like sheds where refrigerated roses are prepared for air freighting to the United States and Europe.”
The Best Politics Books of 2022, recommended by David Edgerton
