Coming up for Air

This engaging novel, written when war clouds were on the horizon, is now published for the first time. The life of its hero, George Bowling, is a kind of cavalcade of England between 1893, when he was born ("it was a good world to live in"), and 1938, when the main action occurs. George Bowling feels compelled to make a try at coming up for air. "The idea really came to me the day I got my new false teeth" is his opening sentence. With seventeen pounds he was won at a race, he steals a visit to Lower Binfield, the village of his birth. This story of Bowling's journey into his own and his country's past is told with humour, warmth, and a nostalgia which will surprise and delight George Orwell's many readers.