Posted on my book blog.

Background: Anything with George Orwell as an author is something that interests me, specially if it comes in the form of a charming little Penguin book. Seriously, if for nothing else, these books are worth checking out by their cover designs alone!

Review: This book, like Books v. Cigarettes, is a collection of short essays written by Orwell. While the other one focused more on reading habits and childhood, this one deals mostly with popular English cultures, with the add More...

This was a very nice book to dip in to and with which to while away the commute, but nothing more than that. Maybe if I was in hospital recovering from an operation I might like to read it. I should add that when I was younger I read ALL of George Orwell's novels and thought he was AMAZING. Huge literary crush etc. andnoIdidn'thavemanyfriendsaththisage. So as I am sure you will be aware from salivatingly following my books reviews, last year I re-read an Orwell novel for the first time in 15 yea More...

Mostly early essays or articles by the icon of all journalists who likes to drink and feel...important. But alas don't let that stop you for enjoying one of the British prose writers of all time. George Orwell in this small edition comments on the joy of being arrested for public drunkness in East London, the joys of dirty (not really) postcards of Donald McGill, the nature of junk stores, and true-crime reading.

In other words a collection of essays that comment on the taste and passions of the More...

A rather mixed collection of essyas, some rather slight, others much more thoughtful and insightful. The best was 'The art of Donald McGill' in which, from consdiering the seaside postcard Orwell goes on to think about the values and attitudes towards sex of Britain, and in particular how class differences affest these. The other very good one is on the Hop-pickers, in which Orwell and a friend go with the hop-pickers of Kent for six weeks or so, and describe their life. In this, which is like a More...

You've got to appreaciate a man who goes to prison so he can write about the experience. And then goes on to essay the pro's and con's of boys comic books. Great read.

This is one of those 'guilty' buys, a book I bought purely for the awesomeness of it's cover.
Decline of English Murder is a collection of George Orwell's essays and articles published in various British newspapers. As far as essays go, I must say I enjoyed reading them (more details on each essay below), and all in all I don't think my money went to waste.

From the things that surprised me about this book was that the language used differs very slightly from the slang we use today, and I had to k More...

Absorbing, thoughtful and completely relevant to today. Beautiful edition but the writing is superb. One of my top ten all time writers.

Not as riveting as the other collections of essays published by penguin but interesting nonetheless.

In these timeless and witty essays George Orwell explores the English love of reading about a good murder in the papers (and laments the passing of the heyday of the 'perfect' murder involving class, sex and poisoning), as well as unfolding his trenchant views on everything from boys' weeklies to naughty seaside postcards.