George Orwell and Big Brother

George Orwell's name has long become synonymous with Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel depicting a totalitarian world in which Big Brother, perhaps a slogan borrowed from advertising, rules with an iron fist. Orwell put his whole life into his masterwork, which he finished on his deathbed. Today there is a resurgence of interest in this dark dystopia, undoubtedly because our world all too often mirrors the repressive world of Oceania, where love and privacy are ghosts from a forgotten past, and no secrets can elude the relentless pursuit of the Thought Police. Nineteen Eighty-Four is essential reading for those who wish to understand totalitarianism and prevent Orwell's nightmare from becoming our reality.