Greetings from Hoxton Square. It’s Banned Books Week and censored writers have been very much on our minds: Simone de Beauvoir, D. H. Lawrence, Voltaire, Edna O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut, Antal Szerb, James Joyce and Radclyffe Hall, to name but a few of our favourites. We have been astonished to discover quite how many books have been banned and the myriad reasons for which they were removed from libraries and bookshops around the world.
One famously oft banned author, George Orwell, has featured in SF a number of times. Christopher Rush wrote of the continued relevance of Nineteen Eighty-Four in Issue No. 69 of SF, ‘wherever there are individual men and women who wish to think for themselves and honour their own beliefs, and be free to do so without fear, Orwell’s book will always make a timeless statement on their behalf.’
Please read on for an extract from Christopher Rush’s article on Nineteen Eighty-Four together with a link to read the full article on the Slightly Foxed website, and for a selection of other banned books for rebellious reading.
With best wishes, as ever, from the SF office staff
Hattie, Jess, Charlotte & India