Charoux, Orwell & Astor’s Circle

“Siegfried Charoux was a man of many gifts and warm friendships. Sculpture and painting were his chief modes of expression, but he was also an inventor of technical devices in those arts, a memorable amateur cook and a powerful arguer.”
                                                                                                              David Astor

The tone and content of the thirteen letters written by George Orwell to Siegfried Charoux piqued my curiosity to find out more about their relationship. The men – who both had strong friendships with David Astor – seemed to be more than mere acquaintances. Charoux was intelligent, charismatic, witty, ambitious, irreverent, politically savvy, valued artistic freedom and was very capable of making the best of his opportunities. He was well-liked and impressed the people he met, as did his wife, Margarethe.

Charoux had met Astor at a cocktail party in London, during late 1935, just after he and Margarethe had emigrated from Austria. They were to become regular guests at Cliveden, the Astor’s grand family estate. Dr Melanie Veasey’s research emphasises that Astor’s patronage “facilitated Charoux’s entrée to the epicentre of the British establishment”. Professionally, Charoux thrived and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1948.

One of Astor’s biographers makes the point that during the war, through his friendship with Orwell and work transforming The Observer,  Astor was “at the fulcrum” of some immensely talented circles. His enormous wealth, political and society connections enabled Astor’s influence to grow until he formally started editing the newspaper in 1948. There is no doubt that Charoux benefitted enormously from Astor’s network.

On the surface it does appear that Astor – a particularly wealthy, thoughtful and well-connected patron of the arts, who spoke fluent German – was merely supporting a talented, expatriate sculptor. Charoux created busts for Astor and several influential men, including Sir Stafford Cripps and Dr Thomas Jones. He corresponded with Orwell about making one of his head too – but this never eventuated due to the writer’s early death from tuberculosis. However, the level of support Astor provides for Charoux and Margarethe – who survived her husband by two decades – was quite extraordinary. Charoux was clearly a significant person in Astor’s life. Astor trusted him.

An obituary, written by Astor and published in The Times (3 May 1967) suggests that the artist’s influence on his patron’s thinking was significant and is worth quoting in full:

Siegfried Charoux was a man of many gifts and warm friendships. Sculpture and painting were his chief modes of expression, but he was also an inventor of technical devices in those arts, a memorable amateur cook and a powerful arguer.

His political views were at the opposite pole from Adolf Hitler’s. Internationalism with him was not just an idea, but the conviction of a private soldier of the Hapsburg monarchy who had been made to fight Russian peasants against his will. During the chaotic times following World War I, he crossed many frontiers of Eastern Europe as a hobo, entering Russia illegally to see the revolutionary regime for himself.

His voluntary exile to England in the thirties became a conversion. When he re-visited Vienna after the war, he felt homesick for London and its social tolerance. Yet his London home, with its piano, indoor plants, over-flowing book-shelves and rich compost of his own and other artists’ work, always exhaled a Continental atmosphere.

He and his wife, who outlives him, were the most generous hosts. Even the austere Stafford Cripps used to unbend in their company. All their friends came to feel like relatives and he will be greatly missed, although he will always survive for them in his lively and honest work.

Astor felt The Observer newspaper’s “personality was established in and just after the last war” by people committed to anti-fascism. Charoux clearly fits this description. In an internal memo, ‘On the Soul of the Paper’ circulated in 1959, Astor wrote:

In the character of this paper, ethics matter more than politics. The particular ethics could be roughly defined as trying to do the opposite of what Hitler would have done.

The fact that Astor highlights, in such a brief obituary, Charoux’ internationalism and polar opposition to Hitler’s policies is notable. As recently as 21 November 2025, the newspaper has highlighted, quoting extensively from Astor’s 1959 memo, that this liberal, internationalist ethos “remains the guiding spirit of The Observer today”:

Who else did Charoux know? Did he play any role in nurturing the Continental atmosphere which profoundly influenced the progressive, anti-colonial and internationalist outlook of the newspaper? How does Orwell fit into the jigsaw puzzle? Did he know the Central European intellectuals and others Astor recruited to write for The Observer?

Charoux is only mentioned twice by Jeremy Lewis in his biography of Astor. However, contextually it is important information that “the sculptor Siegfried Charoux” had been invited to Cliveden for a weekend when J.L. Garvin was in the dying days of his long editorship of the newspaper and Astor was endeavouring to shape The Observer‘s future. Also invited that weekend were “Tom Harrisson, Ali Forbes, Francis Williams, Michael Foot, Ronald Fredenburgh, Stephen King-Hall [and] Edward Hulton”:

• Harrison was the radio critic for The Observer from May 1942 until June 1944.
• Forbes was a friend to the rich and powerful, including the Churchills. He became a journalist for The Observer. Forbes was also a Royal Marine, like Astor.
• Williams was a journalist who became Controller of Press Censorship and News at the Ministry of Information in 1941. Williams attended meetings of the 1941 Committee and described Hulton “an intellectual manqué with a lot of money who was passionately keen on social revolution so long as it did not hit him”.
• Fredenburgh was to become the diplomatic correspondent for The Observer. He was a member of the Shanghai Club (named after the Soho restaurant where left-leaning politicians, intellectuals and émigré journalists met).
• Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard. He co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym. He had a long career at the centre of left wing politics in Britain but failed to become prime minister.
• King-Hall was a British naval officer, writer, politician and playwright who served as MP for Ormskirk from 1939-1945
• Hulton edited the hugely popular, Picture Post. Along with David Astor, he founded the Shanghai Club and the 1941 Committee met at Hulton’s home.

Following Garvin’s departure in February 1942, The Observer’s politics underwent a radical transformation. Most of Astor’s new recruits were young and progressive thinkers who had a revolutionary effect on the newspaper’s politics.

The other reference in this biography was to “a statue by the Astors’ friend Siegfried Charoux” featured in the redesigned garden at Manor House in Sutton Courtenay, which Astor had purchased in 1945. Orwell and Astor would be buried near each other, across the road, in the local churchyard.

There was enough evidence to make investigating connections between Charoux, Orwell and those émigré writers – the anti-fascist and non-communist left who had experienced the frightening loss of intelletual and personal freedom in their own countries recruited by Astor to reinvigorate The Observer newspaper – a worthwhile enterprise. Another hunch – that Charoux was more significant in Astor’s own political development than previously understood – would also require much more research but there were certainly plenty of encouraging hints.

Dr Veasey encouraged me to explore archival materials held at Langenzersdorf Museum and my own research indicated that the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth held letters by Charoux.

Twelve months after locating the thirteen letters from Orwell to Charoux, I made the lengthy journey from Australia to Wales and onto Austria (just north of Vienna) which I am pleased to report paid significant research dividends.

My hunches had proven correct. Primary sources located included:

• a “cooking diary”(kochtagebuch) Charoux maintained for a decade from 1941 which lists his guests and menu
• letters from Orwell and Charoux to Dr. Thomas Jones (and many of his responses)
• correspondence between Jones and Astor dating back to the early 1930s
• many letters discussing a new direction for The Observer from Astor’s rapidly expanding circle of supporters
• a richer, more nuanced understanding of The Observer network which developed around Astor from 1939 until he officially assumed the mantle of editor in 1948

Diary entries and correspondence revealed that Charoux’ home at 65 Holland Park Road was visited by Orwell, an impressive coterie of politicians, public servants, Astor family members, intellectuals, émigré writers, editors, military officers* and journalists who were fast becoming the circle around Astor who would transform the newspaper.

The rent was paid by Astor, who later purchased the property. It was not sold until the time of Margarethe’s death. The correspondence between the married couple and the wider Astor family – including Christmas and postcards – lasted nearly half-a-century.

Charoux benefitted enormously from the connections that “the fulcrum” Astor facilitated. Long-running correspondence with “T.J.” is particularly revealing on how much Charoux knew about Astor’s meetings, activities and thinking on important issues related to The Observer, propaganda and politics generally. One example, he manages to mention Astor’s meeting with the American Ambassador and important members of Churchill’s cabinet in a letter written in May 1941:

I have been with David over the week-end at Cliveden and he urged me to write to you. He is as keen as ever that I should model your head. He would prefer to see you coming up to London where – as he says – you should do political work. He has seen L.G., Mr. Winant and other big pots. His interview with L.G. was highly successful and seems to have impressed David tremendously.

The bantering, ironical and self-deprecatory tone of Astor’s letters to Charoux and Margarethe is evident in the following, occasionally illegible one written on an unknown date in what must be 1943. Astor gossiped about their mutual friend, happily telling them that “Orwell says he is leaving the B.B.C.”. The letter shows Astor is on very familiar terms with Charoux and his wife.

My dear Margaret,
My dear Charoux,
My dear Walter(?), your companion,

How I envy you. It is all the same delightful to think of you holidaying in lordly surroundings. I am giving Mary Booker lunch at the Ritz as a mark of my gratitude to her for being a generous character.

Many thanks for the beautiful honey. It is really lovely stuff. I have not eaten much of it yet as I am trying to make it go a long way. It is very kind of you to send and it will greatly help to augment the miserable jam ration.
(1. this the kind of thing you want to read out to Mrs L-W? But I mean it technically(?).)

Life here has been the same as usual. In my loneliness caused by your absence I have not been able to keep up my monastic habits of celibacy which I established so as to simplify my life & stay faithful to Mary (and Hermione!). Having broken down I now take out a girl from our office. Fortunately she is quite nice.

I have had a personal row with Connolly.

I continue my French Revolution.

I also know Mrs Goodwin would stop the hens from laying.

Orwell says he is leaving the B.B.C..

Looking forward to seeing you both.

Yours, David

Astor seems to be referencing Virginia Woolf, “Mrs L-W” being Mrs Leonard Woolf. (UPDATE: However, it has been pointed out that she suicided in 1941, so probably not likely). It is not clear who the “Mary” may be (I do not think it is Booker) but Hermione is almost certainly Astor’s secretary, Hermione Fitzherbert-Brockholes. Rows with Cyril Connolly were not unusual and it appears that the editor of Horizon was a familiar figure for Charoux and his wife.

65 HOLLAND PARK ROAD

The following alphabetised list of guests from the “cooking diary”(kochtagebuch) Charoux maintained is incomplete. Charoux, whose handwriting is challenging, writes in both German and English in this diary. I am still working on transcribing and translating it. No effort has yet been made to transcribe menus but there is some extraordinary, quite unexpected cuisine on offer during war-time rationing. You will be able to read below what was on the menu when Orwell visited.

More importantly though, it is taking some time to trace how each guest (and often there is only a first name) connects to Charoux or Astor’s circle. You will note that several of the men invited to Cliveden to discuss The Observer newspaper along with Charoux – Forbes, Williams & Hulton – are listed below. The list of those associated with the 1941 Committee reveals considerable crossover between guests at 65 Holland Park Road and the Shanghai Club.

It is rare that Charoux makes personal notes in this cooking diary. When he does, they are mostly pithy comments about David Astor. However, on Sunday the 8th April 1945 he writes, “Sad news: Orwell’s wife dead”. Eileen had died on 29th March. Orwell was significant to Astor and by extension, Charoux.

Hopefully, the following list of more than forty guests will encourage dialogue about what can be inferred from the presence of these individuals at 65 Holland Park Road.

Dorothee Ascher was the first of Arthur Koestler’s “beautiful, intelligent wives”.

Barbara Astor was Michael’s first wife. They married in 1942.

Barclay?

David Astor first met Charoux in 1935. During the war, Astor had to find time to make plans for The Observer‘s future while serving as an officer. It is interesting that military figures with connections to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Political War Executive (PWE)* dine with him at 65 Holland Park Road.

Mary (Astor?) was David Astor’s paternal grandmother but it is unclear if she is the “Mary” mentioned in some entries.

Jakie Astor was David’s youngest brother.

Michael Astor was another of David’s brothers who visited often with his first wife.

Lady Nancy Astor was the first female MP and had a complex relationship with her family, especially her son, David!

Colonel Beck*

Mary (Benson)? was a significant campaigner for the rights of black South Africans and is a strong candidate for the unknown Mary – but I am uncertain at this stage.

Mary Booker became widely known through her poignant wartime romance with RAF pilot and author Richard Hillary. Twenty years his senior, twice-married and a mother, Booker met Hillary in 1941 while he was recuperating from severe injuries and disfigurement suffered in aerial combat. Their passionate affair concluded in 1943 when Hillary died in a training accident. Hillary’s memoir, The Last Enemy had been published to literary acclaim in 1942. Arthur Koestler wrote an essay about Hillary published in Horizon with the title, ‘Birth of a Myth’ (April 1943). Booker is a guest several times. You read in the letter above that Astor dined at The Ritz with her in early 1943 (and one assumes just prior to Hillary’s death).

Colonel Brennan*

Ivor Brown was a prolific author, leading theatre reviewer and edited The Observer for six years (1942-1948). His extensive correspondence with Astor and Jones about the newspaper provides good insight into the challenges and controversies of the day.

Mrs Brown was occasionally a guest with her husband.

Margarethe Charoux is not listed by name in the “cooking diary” and one assumes she teamed with her husband to prepare quite extraordinary food, especially considering wartime rationing and scarcities. Margarethe also corresponds with Astor and T.J. This is a photo she enclosed in one letter to Jones.

Cyril Connolly was the editor of Horizon. He knew Orwell from their time as schoolboys at St Cyprians, and later Eton. His Enemies of Promise, published in 1938, contains interesting observations about Orwell before the fame he gained from his two final novels. David Astor read The Lion and the Unicorn (1941) and asked Connolly to introduce him to Orwell. For a brief time Connolly was The Observer‘s literary editor before falling out with Astor.

Lord Rolf Cunliffe was on the board of Guy’s Hospital from 1932 to 1963 and acted as Governor, Treasurer and Chairman. Astor used his wealth to endow a psychiatric unit at the hospital.

Lady Cunliffe accompanied her husband on their visits.

Lionel Curtis was an internationalist who played an important role in the establishment of Chatham House.

Sir Stafford Cripps – who had been expelled from the Labour Party in 1939 – was appointed by Winston Churchill as Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1940. In 1942, he became a member of the War Cabinet with the jobs of Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons. He and Lady Cripps dined with Charoux and other guests often. Orwell mentions Cripps in his diary often.  Astor mentioned in his obituary for Charoux that “even the austere Stafford Cripps used to unbend in their company”. 

Lady Cripps is also a guest without her husband.

“Peggy” Cripps (youngest daughter) accompanied her parents.

Isaac Deutscher was a hugely important figure in the revitalisation of the newspaper. A Polish-Jew, he was a leading Marxist intellectual and anti-Stalinist. He was another member of the Shanghai Club. Deutscher wrote the influential pseudonymous column ‘Peregrine’s European Notebook’. Intellectual competition between Deutscher and German-born Sebastian Haffner, who was quite conservative, was a feature of the politics of The Observer. during the mid-1940s.

Lionel Fielden was the BBC Director of Talks (1927–35) and Controller of Broadcasting in India (1935–40), Orwell detested Fielden. His review of Beggar Thy Neighbour led to a tart public exchange in the letters section of Horizon. Astor liked the profiles which appeared in the New Yorker and Fielden wrote the first in a series of ‘Profiles’ for The Observer in March 1942. A column still in existence today, the Profiles endeavoured to provide a more nuanced understanding of public figures.

Alistair “Ali” Forbes was a friend to the rich and powerful, including the Churchills. He became a journalist for The Observer. Forbes was also a Royal Marine, like Astor.

Dr. Robert Dick Gillespie was Astor’s psychiatrist or, as described by Lord Waldorf Astor, his “nerve specialist”. Astor was always “highly-strung” and experienced depressive illness which was possibly one reason for him not completing his degree at Oxford (which is when he was referred to Gillespie by his father). Gillespie was elected at just 23 years-of-age to be a physician and lecturer in psychological medicine at Guy’s Hospital Medical School. Astor generously funded the hospital.

Major Herbert “Blondie” Hasler was a fellow Royal Marine who Astor admired for his sense of humour, bravery and technical genius. Hasler planned and personally led daring commando operations using his innovatively designed, folding kayaks (see film). He founded the Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race which was sponsored by The Observer. The newspaper also funded his search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Sebastian Haffner was the pseudonym of Raimund Pretzel, a German émigré writer. In 1941, Astor invited Haffner to join The Observer as political correspondent and Edward Hulton recruited him as contributor to Picture Post.  In 1948 Haffner became a naturalised British citizen. He was a member of the Shanghai Club

General Hayden*

Edward Hulton is a particularly significant person to be identified as a regular visitor 65 Holland Park Road. He edited the hugely popular, Picture Post. Along with David Astor, he founded the Shanghai Club and the 1941 Committee met at Hulton’s home.

Roy Jenkins had strong family connections to the Labour Party and became Clement Attlee’s parliamentary aide at a young age. During the Second World War Jenkins served as an officer on a domestic artillery battery after 1942 before being moved to work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park from 1944 until war’s end. He met his wife at a Fabian Summer School in Devon in 1940. He was writing for The Observer in the 1960s.

Dr Thomas Jones (T.J.) played an important role in David Astor’s life. Lord Waldorf Astor, David’s father, had asked Jones to mentor his son in the early 1930s. It was T.J. who organised for Astor to be employed in a regular working class job in a Glasgow factory and they travelled overseas together. Charoux met Jones at Cliveden. T.J. supported his application to become a naturalised British citizen by acting as his referee. They corresponded regularly, often discuss Astor and related issues. Charoux had a cheeky sense of humour and his banter with Jones is even more amusing due to his awkward turn of phrase in English. Charoux, in a letter to T.J. on the 19th May 1941, wrote presciently of the 29-year-old Astor:
“It is a joy for me to see David rapidly develop. When I compare the David of a few years ago with the David of today I feel great satisfaction, because I expected it. It is a theory of mine that men discover their personality round about 35 years of age. Until then they are engaged in storing up events and are consuming fellow human beings without obvious effect, and consequences. Until then they represent copies of their ideal idols. I expect that David will pleasantly surprise us when he has reached that age.”
I wrote here about the correspondence, encouraged by Astor, between Jones and Orwell regarding the Home Guard. Jones and Orwell meet less than a month after their correspondence with Astor at 65 Holland Park Avenue. NB From 1944, The Observer was run by a Trust on non-profit-making, non-party lines. Jones was one of the original trustees.

Terrence Kilmartin was the literary editor of The Observer between 1952 and 1986.

Arthur Koestler was a significant figure in Astor and Orwell’s life. He was also a member of the Shanghai Club.

Sir Basil Liddell Hart was a military theorist and historian. Orwell’s diaries mention him in connection with Home Guard policy.

James Bolivar Manson had been the director of the Tate Gallery in the 1930s and been an early, committer supporter of the sculptor.

George Orwell corresponded with Charoux and dined at least three times at 65 Holland Park Road*. Geographically, W14 is some way from Orwell’s apartment at 111 Langford Place in St John’s Wood, NW8. Google Maps says it is a 1 hour 22 minute walk. Where Orwell lived was also an area with many refugees and emigres from Europe. One assumes that guests often stayed the night if the Luftwaffe were active. Orwell was Charoux’ guest on the 15th April (with T.J., David & Elisabeth). Less than a month after taking Astor’s advice to write to Thomas Jones about the Home Guard, Orwell is meeting with him. On the 12th May he dines again with David, Mary? and someone illegible?. On the 12th September 1942, Orwell is again with David Astor, Elisabeth & Owen – either David or Frank?). Astor delivered the tragic news that Eileen had died on 29th March. Suggestions about which Owen (see below) is the most likely guest, the identity of Mary and the illegible name on the 12th May warmly welcomed.

David Owen? Personal assistant to Sir Stafford Cripps (19 February – 21 November 1942) who is mentioned multiple times in Orwell’s War-Time Diary.

Frank Owen? It is also possible – although less likely – that the “Owen” listed is Frank. Astor and Owen served in the marines. Orwell mentions him in his war-time diary and Owen re-published seven of Orwell’s articles from the Evening Standard in SEAC. Possibly both Owens visited Charoux.

Jim Rose was literary editor at The Observer (1948-1951). He was worked at Bletchley Park decoding Luftwaffe intercepts.

Professor Denis Saurat was an Anglo-French scholar, writer, and broadcaster. Orwell reviewed his book, Milton: Man and Thinker in The Observer (20 August 1944).

Mrs Saurat accompanied her husband.

Bobbie Shaw (Robert Gould Shaw III) was Nancy Astor’s son from her first marriage.

Colonel Simpson*

Peter Smollet? had also been born in Austria and was yet another member of the Shanghai Club. It is not clear if he is the Peter listed in the cooking diary but it seems quite likely. Smollet, who was included on Orwell’s list, was the head of the Russian section at the Ministry of Information. He turned out to be a Soviet agent recruited by Kim Philby!

Mary S___? Possibly Mary Stott or Mary Stocks?

Barbara Ward was an economist and writer, interested in the problems of developing countries and philosophically attuned with Astor. She wrote for The Observer. Ward was also member of the Shanghai Club.

Elisabeth Welch was a renowned American jazz, cabaret and club singer who lived in London for 70 years. Welch became the first black broadcaster to have her own BBC radio series, Soft Lights and Sweet Music (1933-1935). Love letters revealing an affair with David Astor surfaced after Welch’s death in 2003. One letter was written in 1944 from the Greek island where Captain Astor was recuperating after a minor wound. Welch is a regular guest at 65 Holland Park Road. Astor is always present.

Francis Williams was a journalist who became Controller of Press Censorship and News at the Ministry of Information in 1941. Williams attended meetings of the 1941 Committee and described Hulton “an intellectual manqué with a lot of money who was passionately keen on social revolution so long as it did not hit him”.

Geoffrey Wilson was a student at Oxford with Astor. He accompanied Sir Stafford Cripps to India, Moscow and China in 1940, served with Cripps at the Moscow embassy during the second world war, translated Churchill’s wartime letters to Stalin, and was part of the British delegation to the Yalta conference in 1945.

*In another post I will explore the military officers and probable links to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Political War Executive (PWE) who also enjoyed the hospitality on offer from Charoux and Margarethe. Astor’s obsessive interest in propaganda and makes these meetings held in a private residence very interesting. As a special treat, the next post will include information about Orwell’s contributions to a journal published at the behest of the PWE and edited by Graham Greene.

REFLECTION

The guest list in this “cooking diary” reveals that Charoux was deeply-connected to Astor’s circle while they were in the process of transforming The Observer.

There is no record of Charoux dining at the “Shanghai Club” – so named after the Soho restaurant where left-leaning politicians, intellectuals and émigré journalists discussed ideas for the postwar development of a “New Jerusalem” informally – but many of the members were guests at 65 Holland Park Road, including Orwell.

Membership of this informal dining club, formed by Astor and Edward Hulton included: Guy Burgess; William Beveridge; E. H. Carr;  Ted Castle; Cyril Connolly; Stafford Cripps; Richard Crossman; Geoffrey Crowther; Isaac Deutscher; Ronald Fredenburgh; Sebastiona Haffner; Tom Hopkinson; Jon Kimche; Arthur Koestler;  Norman Luker (BBC Talks Department); George Orwell; Frank Pakenham, later Lord Longford; E. F. “Fritz” Schumacher; John Strachey; Donald Tyerman; and Barbara Ward.

There’s much to explore and the process of matching Orwell’s diary entries and letters to the dates and names listed by Charoux, will an ongoing one. There would be much to discover from the letters and diaries of the individuals who visited 65 Holland Park Road too.

Charoux had much to offer Astor and the circle that grew around The Observer during the 1940s. He was an artist with a fine intellect – demonstrated by his work as a political cartoonist in Vienna between the wars – and a man of strong political convictions which had been formed by his experience of war and the rise of fascism in Austria.

Dr Veasey’s analysis of the Newspaper Reader (1960) posits the sculpture could be considered “homage to Astor as a ‘newspaper man’, offering an informal yet discreet acknowledgement of Charoux’s benefactor”.

The seated workman holds the outer edges of the newspaper, the inner section providing a void through which the torso may be viewed. Dr Veasey notes that “the voiding of a sculptural space was a clever technique” to represent, in this case, an “amusing absence of news” and which “may indicate Charoux’s cynicism of content-free journalism or free speech”. She also notes the sculpture was located as “central to the gallery entrance archway at Charoux’s retrospective, held at the Royal Academy in 1968”.

My own small collection of Charoux memorabilia includes a doodle in a notepad of a journalist whose nose appears to be most Pinocchio-like. Orwell wrote memorably about the state of truthfulness in the British newspaper industry after his experiences in Spain. Put succinctly, he noted in letters to friends the “very great difficulty of getting the truth ventilated in the English press”. It is not hard to see why he and Charoux would be friends.

There’s much to be investigated but it is apparent that Siegfried Charoux was a more significant figure in the lives of David Astor and, to a lesser extent, George Orwell than has been previously understood.

Please feel encouraged to email or comment below if you have insights into the names listed or other associated issues.

Special thanks to Gregor-Anatol Bockstefl, curator of the estate of Siegfried Charoux and manager of the Langenzersdorf Museum for his generosity when I visited Austria recently. I also greatly appreciate Dr Melanie Veasey’s ongoing advice and support.

FEATURED IMAGE: Newspaper Reader (1960) ©The Estate of Siegfried Charoux, photograph by Darcy Moore

REFERENCES

Ascherson, Neal, ‘Sebastian Haffner’, Guardian, 14 January, 1999

Astor, David, ‘Memo on the Soul of the Paper’, Internal memorandum, The Observer, 1959

Astor, David, ‘Mr Siegfried Charoux’, Times, 3 May, 1967

Bown, Jane, Observer, London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. 1996

Charoux, Siegfried, Kochtagebuch (Cooking Diary), Langenzersdorf Museum

Cockett, Richard, David Astor and The Observer, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1991

Groß, Hans Kurt, Siegfried Charoux: die Wiener Jahre des Karikaturisten und Bildhauers [Siegfried Charoux: the Viennese Years of the Caricaturist and Sculptor], Charoux-Museum, Langenzersdorf, Austria, Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus St. Pölten, NP-Buchver: Langenzersdorf, Verlag, 1997

Gross, Hans Kurt, “Charoux, Siegfried Joseph (1896–1967), sculptor”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 Sep. 2004. Accessed 20th October 2024

Lewis, Jeremy, David Astor, Random Books: Kindle Edition, 2017

Orwell, George, A Patriot After All: 1940–1941, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 12, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, All Propaganda Is Lies: 1941–1942, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 13, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, Keeping Our Little Corner Clean: 1942–1943, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 14, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, Two Wasted Years: 1943, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 15, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, I Have Tried to Tell the Truth: 1943–1944, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 16, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, I Belong to the Left: 1945, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 17, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, Smothered Under Journalism: 1946, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 18, Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, It Is What I Think: 1947–1948, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 19, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, Our Job is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949-1950, The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume 20, Davison, Peter (ed.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1998

Orwell, George, Orwell: The Observer Years, London: Atlantic Books, 2005

Orwell, George, A Life in Letters, Davison, Peter (ed.), London: Liveright, 2013

Veasey, Melanie, Charoux’s Sculptures, Langenzersdorf Museum, 2024