Love this Harry.

With the miasma of Brexit and the government in turmoil in Great Britain, I wonder if Brits are feeling the same way they did after WW1. Like their once upright country is ‘an empty shadow of its former self’, as you said, only in 2019.

You speak of Orwell’s purpose in life as: “to defend language from those who wish to ‘make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.’” As I read this I can’t help thinking (clearly) of Donald Trump emphasising those who investigated his collusion with Russia as ‘bad men’ and ‘evil people’ this week. The current POTUS spurts more fake news than genuine; so much that his lies do sound almost truthful before you consider the content.

Pondering more than the written word in your article, I feel we need a new champion, a new Orwell to spell it out. But, we are writers. As you conclude ‘writing is powerful’. Perhaps we don’t have the means to change society but we do have the tools to shine a torch on ways our society is being subverted, as Orwell demonstrated in the novel 1984. We can also influence society in positive ways with our words.

I’d like to stay mindful of the gift for writing I have been given, and use it wisely.

Thank you for your article, it moved me and has my brain whirling.