Thanks for visiting my website.
My partner and I live with our two ‘children’ (19 & 22) and a schnauzer in sunny Kiama, NSW, Australia.
I have been blogging for a quarter-of-a-century and this particular iteration has been live for nearly two decades. The focus has changed (and continues to change) as I find new interests to write about. This space feels more like a website than a blog nowadays and mostly features my research into the life and writings of George Orwell. It has become a space to share my bibliomania and wide reading about Orwell and his context too. You could spend many hours browsing my Orwell Studies Library.
My thinking about Orwell changed significantly during the process of researching and drafting Orwell in Paris: The Making of a Writer. In fact, it is morphing into a much larger book with the working title, George Orwell: Prehistory. This will be the first in a multi-volume biography of Orwell.
Feel welcome to get in touch if you have a request, question or suggestion. I am always more than happy to collaborate. I am particularly keen to make contact with anyone who has letters, diaries, photographs or documents that mention Orwell or his extended family (Limouzin, Blair, Halliley, Fane, Michel, Ayscough, Hare, Bird and Rattray). It would be remiss of me not to mention that I am always keen to procure Orwelliana, especially first editions of his work in any language, journals and other rare publications!
You can contact me via X-Twitter (my DMs are open) OR email: dfjmooreATgmail.com
George Orwell
My most recent research trip (October-November 2024) was to the United Kingdom and Morocco. Time was well spent in Bath, London, Newcastle, Oxford, Polperro and Wigan, mostly at libraries and archives, but also at sites associated with Orwell’s life and writing, including Marrakech and Casablanca! It was wonderful to spend time with so many of my Orwellian friends and meet new people. The thoughtful support of librarians and archivists was superb!
The trip was particularly rewarding as there were many new discoveries, including fifteen previously unknown letters written by Orwell between (1946-1949). Thirteen of these letters were written to the Austrian-British sculptor, Siegfried Charoux (1896-1967). The other two letters, written to David Astor in 1946 and 1947, are extremely informative, especially considering Orwell lists thirty individuals whom he recommended to write reviews for the Observer “to bring the literary section up to the level of the rest of the paper”.
It was a great honour to be presented with the 2024 Peter Davison Award by Richard Blair at University College London during this recent trip. Quentin Kopp made a very generous speech and I particularly appreciated the attendance of so many of my Orwellian friends and colleagues. The Orwell Society has been endlessly supportive of my research and this was a truly humbling experience. I feel greatly encouraged!
On the trip, I managed to find a photograph of Orwell’s uncle, Arthur Blair. It was also incredibly rewarding to find Aunt Nellie’s literary contracts in the Oxford University Press archive. I will need to update this post to reflect the new knowledge about Orwell’s most significant family supporter.
The bibliophile in me was also nurtured on the trip. Richard Blair, who has previously signed my first editions of his father’s work on Jura and in Barcelona, inscribed my fine copy of Coming Up For Air when we were in Marrakech.This first American edition was published on 19th January, two days before Orwell died in 1950!
INDIA
Last year, I had a research expedition (Nov-Dec 2023) to India (but sadly Myanmar was not possible due to the ongoing political situation). Research in the archives and libraries of Patna, Kolkata and New Delhi resulted in a number of primary source documents being located (and the existence of other – somewhere – that are important became evident). The most exciting discovery was of the transcript of a radio broadcast written by Orwell in 1942 that had previously been thought lost.
Time spent in Motihari and Nainital proven particularly profitable in deepening my understanding of the significance of Orwell’s Anglo-Indian ancestry on his life and and work. I endeavoured, more than a little quixotically, to discover the identity of Orwell’s ayah without much success although I did learn a great deal more generally about the context for his family, c. 1903, where he was born at Motihari (there was also plenty of opportunity to reflect further on Orwell’s loathing of rats).
Forming what I hope will be ongoing relationships with Indian archivists, historians and local residents in Nainital, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, New Delhi, and Motihari has been a particularly rewarding aspect of this travel experience.
I shared some of this new knowledge on Bastille Day 2024 in a George Talk for The Orwell Society, Orwell & India, which explores what has been uncovered with photos and video shot in Motihari (where he was born) and Nainital (where his parents married). There is much more to reveal in coming months about the Blair family in India.
More Background
During 2018, I first started to think about writing a book about George Orwell. For many years I had read extensively (books by and about Orwell) and had amassed a large collection. Reading his entire output chronologically, when I finally procured The Complete Works of George Orwell – a twenty-volume collection of his fiction and non fiction (essays, diaries, reviews, articles, notebooks and ephemera) – was a life-changing experience. This was only added to my library after nearly thirty years of reading whatever I could by (or about) Orwell with no particular understanding of the chronology of his work or where his essays, articles and reviews were originally published.
Reading Orwell’s work chronologically piqued my interest in his early development, especially before his pseudonym, George Orwell, first appeared in 1933. I subsequently spent several weeks in the British Library and Orwell Archive as well as enjoying time with Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, on trips to Jura (2018) and Spain (2019) – a very special treat for an Orwell fan! Richard has been very generous in the years since then.
I continued to travel, read, research, speak and write about Orwell during 2019-20. Highlights included exploring Montparnasse in Paris, an intellectually stimulating trip to Spain where I met local experts and historians, including Nick Lloyd and Victor Victor Pardo Lancina It was great to hang out with Dennis Glover (after years of emailing) exploring Las Ramblas in Barcelona and the civil war trenches where Orwell fought (and almost died). Richard Blair read passages from Homage to Catalonia; which was a unique experience. Richard kindly signed my first edition of his father’s book at the Poliorama in Barcelona, where Orwell did guard duty while chain-smoking and reading Penguin paperbacks..
.
Sadly, COVID-19 prevented my research trip to Myanmar in January 2022 going ahead. Now, the terrible situation that continues to unfold for the people of that country makes a visit in the foreseeable future challenging. I was particularly looking forward to exploring Moulmein and Katha.
However, I did manage to do more research and travel during June-July 2022 visiting London, Paris and Shropshire, where the young Eric Blair spent his summer holidays at Ticklerton during his teens. This trip was particularly pleasing as I spent quality time with many Orwellian friends and colleagues (as well as in the British Library, Crick Archive at Birbeck College and the Orwell Archive).
ORWELL PUBLICATIONS
In 2025, I have chapters being published in two major academic publications on Orwell. Cambridge University Press will release Orwell in Context (with my work on his time in Paris) and “Newspeak: A re-evaluation” will appear in The Routledge Companion to George Orwell.
“The Two Arthurs” is published in the current edition of George Orwell Studies (November 2024). My most recently peer-reviewed paper – “BBC transcript found: ‘The meaning of scorched earth'” – was published earlier this year. I encourage you to consider subscribing to this journal in order to stay up to date with the latest Orwell scholarship.
It has been particularly rewarding to have the academic papers and articles about Orwell’s time in Paris and his experiences in Burma recognised as being important to “future biographers of Orwell will, I am sure, also value enormously Moore’s original research”:
Darcy Moore is making an enormous contribution to the development of our knowledge of Orwell in Burma, as an Imperial Policeman (1922-1927), and in Paris during the early 1920s. In particular, his researches are forcing us to question the myth – he was keen to manufacture himself – of Blair the lonely, poverty stricken down-and-out in the French capital. In his latest study, drawing on original archive material, Moore identifies the networks of left-wing intellectuals, artists, journalists and political activists Blair joined. Richard Keeble, editor of George Orwell Studies
These peer-reviewed long-reads about Orwell before he was Orwell include: “Orwell and the Secret Intelligence Service”; “The True Artist: Poverty, Networking and Literary Artifice”; and, “Orwell in Burma: The Two Erics”.
It is possible to read formally published papers and articles at this Academia page. There are also online versions with photographs and clippings.
You can read my tribute to the late Peter Davison here.
CHAPTERS
“Paris”, Orwell in Context, Waddell, Nathan (editor), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming 2025)
“Newspeak: A re-evaluation”, The Routledge Companion to George Orwell, Keeble, Richard; Crook, Tim (editors), London: Routledge (forthcoming 2025)
“Orwell: The Anglo-Indian”, George Orwell: Ways of Reading, Tavares, Débora Reis; Da Silva, Matheus Cardoso (editors) Brazil (forthcoming 2025)
“Homage to Stansky and Abrahams: Orwell’s first biographers”, George Orwell: His Enduring Legacy, Davidson, Russ (editor), New Mexico: University of New Mexico, 2019
PEER REVIEWED PAPERS
“BBC transcript found: ‘The meaning of scorched earth'”, George Orwell Studies (2024) Vol. 8, No. 2 pp. 20-31
“Orwell and the Secret Intelligence Service”, George Orwell Studies (2022) Vol. 6, No. 2 pp. 9-16
“The True Artist: Poverty, Networking and Literary Artifice”, George Orwell Studies (2021) Vol. 6, No. 1 pp. 7-31
“Orwell in Burma: The Two Erics”, George Orwell Studies (2021) Vol. 5, No. 2 pp. 6-24
“Orwell’s Scottish Ancestry and Slavery”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 5, No. 1 pp. 6-19
“Orwell’s Aunt Nellie”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No.2 pp. 30-44
“Orwell and the Appeal of Opium”, George Orwell Studies (2018) Vol. 3, No.1 pp. 83-102
ARTICLES
“Dear Charoux: Revealed – Orwell’s 13 Letters to his Artist Friend”, George Orwell Studies, (2025) Vol. 9, No. 2 pp. 91-105
“The Dorset Roots of Orwell”, The Greenwood Tree, (2025) Volume 50, No. 1, March, pp. 20-21
“The Two Arthurs”, George Orwell Studies, (2024) Vol. 9, No. 1 pp. 135-144
“Orwell and Bedford”, History in Bedfordshire, (2024) Vol. 10, No. 5, Summer pp. 5-15
“Peter Duby (1946-2023), The Orwell Society Journal, (2024) March, No. 23 pp. 45-48
“Orwell’s Rats”, Metaphor (2023) Issue 1, pp. 44–48
“Orwell in Cornwall”, George Orwell Studies (2023) Vol. 8, No. 1 pp. 142-158
“Dear Dione”, George Orwell Studies (2023) Vol. 8, No. 1 pp. 201-203
“Esteemed by Other Orwellians for his Readiness to Offer Help and Encouragement”, George Orwell Studies (2023) Vol. 7, No.2 pp. 9–16
“Orwell’s Rats”, George Orwell Studies (2022) Vol. 7, No.1 pp. 92–101
“Did Orwell Have Asperger’s? No!”, The Orwell Society Journal, (2021) Spring, No. 18 pp. 38-40
“Stansky and Abrahams: Orwell’s First Biographers”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No.2 pp. 104–114
“Leon Gellert, George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four”, George Orwell Studies (2020) Vol. 4, No. 1 pp.105–112
“Orwell in Paris: Who was Ruth Graves?”, George Orwell Studies (2019) Vol. 3, No.2 pp. 55–70
“Collecting Orwell: A Kind of Compulsion”, George Orwell Studies (2018) Vol. 2, No. 2 pp. 10-14
“George Orwell’s Legacy”, mETAphor (2018) Issue 3, pp. 22-24
REVIEWS
“Orwell and Empire by Douglas Kerr”, George Orwell Studies (2022) Vol. 7, No.1 pp. 102–106
“Orwell-inspired museum installation makes for uneasy viewing”, George Orwell Studies (2019) Vol. 3 , No. 1 pp. 135–137
“Tombs: Sharing Orwell’s Penchant for Puncturing Shibboleths”, George Orwell Studies (2019) Vol. 3, No.2 pp. 89–94
“‘An Astonishingly Comprehensive Record’ – A Review of George Orwell on Screen“, The Orwell Society Journal (2019) Spring, No. 14 pp. 31-32
PRESENTATIONS
I have presented my research locally and as far afield as University College, in London (and love giving “George Talks” to the knowledgable members of The Orwell Society about my research). One of these talks, George Orwell & Searchlight Books, on 18th June 2023, can be viewed here and here. My most recent George Talk for The Orwell Society, Orwell & India, has photos and video shot while I was researching in Motihari (where he was born) and Nainital (where his parents married).
“Dear Charoux”, Peter Davison Award Presentation, University College London, 24 October 2024
“Orwell & India”, The Orwell Society, George Talks, 14 July 2024
“George Orwell & Searchlight Books“, The Orwell Society, George Talks, 18 June 2023
“Orwell and Lanti in Paris”, Un siècle d’espérantisme ouvrier – 1921-2021, Paris, 17 December 2021
“Orwell in Paris”, The Orwell Society, George Talks, 12 July 2020
“The Unknown George Orwell”, Friends of Kiama Library, 8 June 2019
“Orwell and the Appeal of Opium”, Rebel? Prophet? Relic? Perspectives on George Orwell Conference, University College London 24-25 May 2019
*It is possible to read most of my papers and formally published articles at my Academia page.
FEEL WELCOME TO CONTACT ME!
You can contact me using the form below or via X-Twitter (my DMs are open) and email: dfjmooreATgmail.com
