A young communist who went to visit him late in his life reported that Orwell “bored him to death with endless descriptions of the habits of birds,” possibly to avoid discussing politics. This Orwell feels like a nephew of Thoreau (who botanized, kept diaries about the timing of bird migrations and first flowerings, grew produce for sale and for consumption by his circle, and, of course, advocated for radical political positions and actions in some of his most important essays). He is not someone I expected to encounter, but once you know what he looks like, you run into him often.
