In the autumn of 1940, as the Blitz raged overhead, George Orwell sat down to write The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), a searching reflection on the nature of England, its people, and its political future.

Inspired by Orwell—and on the eve of the Makerfield by-election—we will be asking our expert panel about the role which both Englishness and Britishness play in our politics today, at a time when both identities are increasingly contested. Register here for this timely debate, hosted in partnership with The Political Quarterly.

As Sam Taylor Hill writes in The Political Quarterly, Orwell takes a keen interest in the moral inheritance of England: the values and traditions against which a nation measures itself, as well as the lived sensibility, that more fluid, elusive quality of collective life that resists formal definition but is nonetheless bound up with how the nation is actually experienced. The Lion and the Unicorn, Sam argues, is ultimately a kind of rallying cry to see England renewed and become its better self.

Public discussion tends to assume that Englishness is narrow and exclusionary, while Britishness is civic and open. Yet historically, prominent far-right movements, from the British Union of Fascists to the National Front and the BNP, mobilised explicitly in the name of Britishness, while Orwell himself offered a distinctly progressive account of English patriotism. More recently, Reform UK, a party largely English in its support base and tone, has sought to expand into Scotland and Wales, requiring a shift toward a more explicitly British political identity.

Our panel—Pippa Catterall John Denham, Tom McTague, Ros Wynne-Jones, and chair Rosie Campbell—will be exploring all these questions and more. And, of course, we’ll be finished in good time for England’s first appearance at the World Cup.

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TONIGHT: Tuesday 9 June | Three Orwell Prize finalists in conversation

Free event | Second Home, Spitalfields, London, 6.30 PM

In this special event, hosted by Libreria Bookshop, three Orwell Prize finalists - Tahmima Anam (Uprising), Karen Bartlett (The Escape from Kabul) and Sam Dalrymple (Shattered Lands) - will be in conversation with Rohan Silva, chair of the panel for the 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Across fiction and nonfiction, the evening will explore the ways in which political writing can challenge orthodoxies, document reality, and offer alternative ways of thinking about our future.

Register to attend

Read exclusive extracts from our finalists

Head to our website to explore The Orwell Prize shortlists: you’ll find exclusive extracts from all the books nominated in this year’s awards, as well as links to all the nominated reporting. Once you’ve chosen your books, visit The Orwell Prize page on The Guardian bookshop for a 20% discount on the recommended retail price.

“One cannot understand life without understanding time. Perhaps that is why the truly insightful child is eager to know which comes first – the chicken or the egg.”

The Comfort of Distant Stars by I.O. Echeruo

Support our work in the United States

George Orwell warned us about the dangers of a world without truth. Our work to promote his legacy—and his values of decency, integrity and fidelity to truth—has never felt more urgent. Now, we’re growing our presence in the United States.

Earlier this year, we launched the American Friends of the Orwell Foundation, a new campaign that allows US donors to support our work directly. We have already begun to act in the US, with our exhibition, Orwell and Truth, currently free to view at New York University. With your support, we can go even further.

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Monday 22 June | War, Hope and Impunity in Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov and Manisha Ganguly in conversation with Kim Darroch

From £5.94 | Paddington, London, 7.00 PM

Andrey Kurkov (Three Years on Fire: The Destruction of Ukraine) and Manisha Ganguly (Investigations Correspondent, The Guardian) join Kim Darroch, Chair of the Orwell Foundation, to discuss their Orwell Prize shortlisted reporting on war crimes in Ukraine, and our age of impunity.

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Over 1300 young writers from across the UK responded to our theme of TRUTH. Thank you to everyone who took part, whether you entered a poem or essay, joined a workshop, or were one of over 750 entrants to receive feedback from our volunteers.

We are marking this year’s shortlists with a stimulating series of events, including the annual Political Quarterly Conversation on 17 June. Our panel will be exploring ‘Englishness, Britishness and the Populist Challenge’, drawing on Orwell’s seminal essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’. Read on for the full programme.

We also have some exciting news to share: as of this year, the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize will be featured in The Observer, with all the winning entries published digitally and one in print.

It is a fitting partnership: George Orwell wrote regularly for the paper, and its legendary editor David Astor was both his close friend and one of his most important supporters. But it is also a forward-looking partnership, rooted in a shared commitment to nurturing the next generation of talented journalists across politics and the arts. We look forward to sharing more in the coming months.

Over forty young writers from across the UK have been shortlisted for The Orwell Youth Prize 2026, responding to the theme of TRUTH.

This year’s Orwell Youth Prize theme was an exceptionally popular one. Our entrants took TRUTH in a multitude of different directions, casting their eyes inwards, upon themselves and their experience, as well as outwards towards the state of Britain and the world beyond.

With the help of our brilliant team of volunteer readers, the same readers who also offer individual feedback to every entrant who requests it, we have shortlisted 47 standout entries for our judges, Sophia Smith Galer, James Bloodworth, and Nandana Dev Sen, to consider. Fifteen winners and runners-up will be announced at the Orwell Prize ceremony at University College London on 25 June.

Find out more

Coming up: Orwell Prize Shortlist Events

Tuesday 9 June | An evening with writers shortlisted for this year’s Orwell Prizes

Free event | Second Home, Spitalfields, 6.30 PM

In this special event, hosted by Libreria Bookshop, three Orwell Prize finalists - Tahmima Anam (Uprising), Karen Bartlett (The Escape from Kabul) and Sam Dalrymple (Shattered Lands) - will be in conversation with Rohan Silva, chair of the panel for the 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Across fiction and nonfiction, the evening will explore the ways in which political writing can challenge orthodoxies, document reality, and offer alternative ways of thinking about our future.

Reserve a spot

Wednesday 17 June | The Political Quarterly Conversation: Englishness, Britishness, and the Populist Challenge

Free event | University College London, 6:30 PM

Is it possible to develop a shared sense of nationhood that transcends the narrow and exclusive version offered by national populism?

Join The Political Quarterly and The Orwell Foundation at UCL for what promises to a timely debate on ‘Englishness, Britishness and the Populist Challenge’, drawing on Orwell’s own reflections in his seminal essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’.

The event will be chaired by Rosie Campbell, who will be joined by panellists Pippa Catterall, John Denham, Tom McTague and Ros Wynne-Jones.

Reserve a spot

Monday 22 June | War, Hope and Impunity in Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov and Manisha Ganguly in conversation with Kim Darroch

From £5.94 | Paddington, London, 7.00 PM

Andrey Kurkov (Three Years on Fire: The Destruction of Ukraine) and Manisha Ganguly (Investigations Correspondent, The Guardian) join Kim Darroch, Chair of the Orwell Foundation, to discuss their Orwell Prize shortlisted reporting on war crimes in Ukraine, and our age of impunity.

Secure a ticket

Explore the shortlists

Head to our website to explore The Orwell Prize shortlists: you’ll find exclusive extracts from all the books nominated in this year’s awards, as well as links to all the nominated reporting. Once you’ve chosen your books, visit The Orwell Prize page on The Guardian bookshop for a 20% discount on the recommended retail price.

Explore the finalists

Eight finalists have been selected for each prize, representing a wide range of voices, geographies and political perspectives. Many of the books speak directly to the defining political crises of recent years, while themes of conflict, upheaval, identity and authoritarianism run through both lists.

The winners will be revealed on 25 June at Bloomsbury Theatre, London, as part of UCL200 — the bicentenary of University College London.

Browse the lists below and click on the titles to read reflections from the judges.

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The Orwell Prize for Political Writing

The Escape from Kabul | Karen Bartlett, Duckworth Books
Israel: What Went Wrong? | Omer Bartov, Fern Press
Shattered Lands | Sam Dalrymple, Harper Collins
For the Sun After Long Nights | Nilo Tabrizy & Fatemeh Jamalpour, Atlantic Books
Three Years on Fire | Andrey Kurkov, Open Borders Press
The Wall Dancers | Yi-Ling Liu, Bonnier Books
The Elements of Power | Nicolas Niarchos, William Collins
Stalin’s Apostles | Antonia Senior, Hodder & Stoughton

The Chair of Judges for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing is Rohan Silva, the founder of Libreria bookshop in Spitalfields, and co-founder of Second Home. Accompanying Silva on the judging panel is Sam Bowman, founding editor of Works in Progress and head of publishing at Stripe, Sir Lawrence Freedman, an Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, Jessie Lau, an independent writer, editor and multi-platform journalist from Hong Kong and Katie Prescott, the technology business editor at The Times and co-host of The Times Tech Podcast.

Rohan Silva, Chair of Judges for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2026, said:

“This shortlist engages with the defining crises of the present era. Although many of these authors were new to us – and indeed the majority of the finalist books are debut works of non-fiction – these are the writings that demanded our attention and taught us the most. As judges, we returned again and again to what George Orwell means to us: clarity of prose and unflinching intellectual bravery. From the chaotic exit from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine to the enduring tragedy in Israel and Palestine, the ghosts of totalitarianism, and human stories of resistance and survival, each of these books examines the world with rigour and empathy. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have.”

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction

Uprising | Tahmima Anam, Canongate
Flashlight | Susan Choi, Penguin Random House
The Comfort of Distant Stars | I.O. Echeruo, Canongate
Transcription | Ben Lerner, Granta
This is Where the Serpent Lives | Daniyal Mueenuddin, Bloomsbury
Every One Still Here | Liadan Ní Chuinn, Granta
John of John | Douglas Stuart, Picador
A Private Man | Stephanie Sy-Quia, Picador

Chairing the judging panel for Political Fiction is journalist Fiammetta Rocco, formerly culture editor of The Economist and administrator for the International Booker Prize from which she stepped away in 2025 after 20 years. Joining her on the panel is Scarlett Baron, an Associate Professor in the English Department at UCL, Olivette Otele a Distinguished Research Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London and Cal Revely-Calder, the Literary Editor of The Telegraph.

Fiammetta Rocco, Chair of Judges for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2026, said:

“Politics, in its widest sense, courses through all these books. The eight finalists for the 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction have thought long and hard about abortion, contraception, gay rights, geopolitics, corruption, religious dogma, regulating technology and treating mental illness. Though these books are all quite different, they are united in showing how much a life of political engagement is a life of purpose and connection with humanity.”

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About The Orwell Prizes

The Orwell Prizes aim to encourage good writing and thinking about politics, with our panels of independent judges asked to find winning entries which best meet Orwell’s own ambition ‘to make political writing into an art’. The Prizes exist to champion creativity and to explore plurality of opinion across books and journalism.

Since the Orwell Prize was awarded for the first time in 1994, the number of categories has grown to include awards celebrating writing and reporting which draws on the full range of Orwell’s contemporary legacy. In 2026, the Orwell Foundation is running six prizes: the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Orwell Prize for Journalism, the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness and the Orwell Youth Prize.

The finalists for The Orwell Journalism Prizes were announced earlier this week. The shortlist for the 2026 Orwell Youth Prize will be announced on Friday 22 May.

Together, the three lists represent some of the most courageous and consequential journalism published in Britain over the past year, with nominations for a wide range of national and local publications including Al Jazeera Investigations, BBC Panorama, ITV News, The Observer, Bloomberg UK and , which is nominated in two categories.

Finalists for The Orwell Book Prizes, Political Writing & Political Fiction, will be revealed 15 May 2026, with the shortlist for The Orwell Youth Prize to follow on 22 May 2026. Winners in all six categories will be announced on 25 June 2026 at the Bloomsbury Theatre, as part of UCL200, the bicentenary of University College London.

Find out more about each shortlist below, and click on the titles to review the entries and read reflections from the judges.

Journalism

From Myanmar and Mozambique to the corridors of Whitehall, this year’s Orwell Prize for Journalism finalists follow the thread of accountability wherever it leads. Shortlisted journalists have investigated alleged atrocities in Palestine, UK complicity in war crimes in Sudan, and killings by British special forces in Afghanistan in reporting that honours Orwell’s own values of bravery, clarity and fidelity to truth.

Finalists

• Al Jazeera Investigations | Ali Fowle, Fiona MacGregor, Drew Ambrose and the Burma VJ Network

• Mads Brügger | BBC4

• Manisha Ganguly | The Guardian

• Christina Lamb | The Sunday Times

• Ana Lankes | 1843, The Economist

• BBC Panorama | Hannah O’Grady, Joel Gunter, Andrew Head, Richard Bilton, Rory Tinman

• Alex Perry | Politico

• Mark Townsend, with additional reporting by Elena Morresi and Laure Boulinier | The Guardian

With thanks to our dedicated independent judging panel: Greg Williams (Chair), Nick Davies, Meenakshi Ravi and Sayeeda Warsi.

These finalists do more than record events: they interrogate power, resist received narratives and give form to truths that others have tried to suppress through the painstaking collection of facts and original sources. Across the shortlist, the judges found the qualities at the heart of Orwell’s legacy: independence of mind, precision of language, moral courage and the transformation of political writing into art.

— Greg Williams, Chair of Judges, The Orwell Prize for Journalism 2026

Exposing Britain’s Social Evils

Sponsored by Prospect magazine

Misogyny in the police and NHS. Failing maternity services. The forces behind rising hate on our streets. The shortlist for The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, which returns for 2026, is urgent and uncomfortable reading. But it is also, crucially, clarifying: reporting which doesn’t just document what is broken, but helps us understand how it might be fixed.

Finalists

• Taj Ali, with additional reporting by Maeve Shearlaw and Christopher Cherry | The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Hyphen

• Hannah Barnes | The New Statesman

• ITV News | Daniel Hewitt, Isabel Alderson-Blench, Imogen Barrer & Mariah Cooper

• Katherine Denkinson, with additional reporting by Jim Waterson and Polly Smythe | London Centric

• Eve Livingston | The Observer

• Daily Mirror: Island of Strangers | Ros Wynne-Jones, John Domokos and Claire Donnelly

• Rachel Sylvester, with additional reporting by Garry Marshall | The Observer

• Noel Titheradge | BBC News, BBC Radio 4

With thanks to our dedicated independent judging panel: Philip Collins (Chair), Abby Jitendra, Amber Rudd and Mina Smallman.

As judges, we approached the entries for The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils hoping to be challenged, and the standard of reporting on show exceeded even our high expectations. We heard from established newsrooms and first-time nominees alike, and the quality across both made for some genuinely tough conversations, which is exactly as it should be. Several of these stories have already changed policy. All of them deserve to be heeded by the public, and by those with the power to act.

— Philip Collins, Chair of Judges, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils 2026

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness

Sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact

Now in its fourth year, The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness exists to champion the role that journalism, and early career reporters in particular, can play in solving one of Britain’s most enduring social failures. With seven Orwell Prize debuts, and nominations for Bloomberg UK, The Daily Mail and London Centric, this year’s shortlist makes a compelling case for why that investment matters.

Finalists

• Asha Birdi | SW Londoner, Ilford Recorder

• Tom Burgess | BBC News, BBC Radio 4

• London Centric | Jim Waterson, Polly Smythe, Cormac Kehoe and Olivia Facey

• Joseph Phelan | The Big Issue

• Andrew Seaton | The New Statesman

• Damian Shepherd | Bloomberg UK

• Katharine Swindells | Inside Housing

• Mimi Yates | The Daily Mail

With thanks to our dedicated independent judging panel: Michael Gove (Chair), Sarah O’Connor, Ligia Teixeira and Mel Yong.

The Orwell Prize attracts some of the most powerful and most exciting journalism being produced in Britain today. Homelessness is a huge social evil, but it has also inspired some great reporting and fantastic analysis. It has been a joy to spend time both with this work and with my fellow judges, who have brought a huge amount of passion and authority to the business of sifting some brilliant entries.

— Michael Gove, Chair of Judges, The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2026

About The Orwell Foundation

The Orwell Foundation exists to promote George Orwell’s values of bravery, integrity, decency and fidelity to truth. Whether through the prestigious Orwell Prizes, its stimulating events programme, or the innovative Youth Prize, it works to bring to life George Orwell’s vision of a decent society where thought is free, truth is valued and brave writing is celebrated.

An independent charity, the Foundation champions plurality of opinion and ideas by running prizes and events which nourish courageous writing, and connect with audiences on subjects emerging from George Orwell’s works including poverty, totalitarianism, the corruption of language and the rise of new technologies.

The Orwell Foundation’s Founding Patron is Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son. Officially licensed by the Orwell Estate, it raises all of its funding through grants, sponsorship and individual donations.

www.orwellfoundation.com

About Prospect Magazine

Sponsor of The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils

Prospect is the UK’s leading monthly magazine for politics, policy, and culture. Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, Prospect is known for agenda-setting essays, interviews, and analysis from across the political spectrum. The magazine is committed to providing rigorous, long-form journalism for readers who want depth, clarity, and insight on the issues that shape our world.

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

About the Centre for Homelessness Impact

Sponsor of The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness

The Centre for Homelessness Impact is the UK’s What Works Centre for Homelessness. It champions the creation and use of better evidence for a world without homelessness and is a member of the What Works Network. It seeks to improve the lives of those experiencing homelessness by ensuring policy, practice and funding decisions are underpinned by reliable evidence.

www.homelessnessimpact.org

The exhibition launch brought together Orwell’s family, his biographer D.J. Taylor, and institutional partners from two continents, including University College London, home of the UNESCO-registered Orwell Archive. For the next nine months, Orwell and Truth—which features reproductions of Orwell’s own manuscripts and diaries as well as photographs and analysis—will be on free public view along West 3rd Street and LaGuardia Place, open to anyone passing by.

Bringing Orwell to New York is only the beginning: we are also working to establish an annual lecture, an Orwell Prize open to journalists based in the US, and associated projects that harness the authority and ambition this moment demands.

With the support of donors across North America, we need to raise $1m each year to continue our existing work and to expand our prizes and events. If this exhibition, and the values behind it, matter to you, please consider supporting us. You can find out more about how to donate from the US here.

Support our work in the US

Orwell and Truth traces Orwell's life from the family he described as 'lower-upper-middle class' through to his death from tuberculosis in 1950 and his astonishing legacy. Its ambition is not simply commemorative. Rather, each vitrine asks visitors to follow the making of a moral sensibility: to understand where, when, and how Orwell developed the values that made his work both singular and enduring.

Though it was in the 1930s and 1940s that Orwell warned about the dangers of unchecked power and excessive limits on freedom of expression, we believe that the enduring relevance of his values, and the importance he attached to truth, demand the forensic attention of us all today.

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The partnership between The Orwell Foundation, UCL, and NYU brought this exhibition into being and reflects a shared conviction that Orwell's work belongs to a global conversation.

Many Americans encountered Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm in school: Orwell and Truth invites them to go further, into the journalism, the diaries, the letters, and the less celebrated novels that reveal how Orwell's views were formed, examining where, when and how Orwell developed the interests, experiences, and characteristics that made him the most exceptional of writers.

The Kimmel Windows are publicly accessible from the street with no ticket, no booking required. Orwell and Truth will be on display until December 2026. Wherever you are, we invite you to engage with the questions Orwell’s work raises—about truth, about power, about the moral power of language and the dangers of its corruption—and to support our work in keeping that legacy alive.

Share Orwell News

The Orwell Foundation is the registered charity authorised by the Orwell Estate to champion brave, clear writing and the values—decency, integrity, fidelity to truth—that defined Orwell’s life and work. We do this through the prestigious Orwell Prizes, a programme of events and exhibitions, and our Youth Prize, which encourages young people to think critically and write clearly. Find out more at www.orwellfoundation.com

The Orwell Prizes close for entries tonight in three categories: Journalism, Exposing Britain’s Social Evils and Reporting Homelessness.

If you’ve done powerful work this year, or know someone who has, The Orwell Prizes are where it should be recognised. From social reporting to dispatches from the front line, if you know a journalist whose work deserves to be in the running, forward this to them. The best work shouldn’t go uncelebrated for want of an entry.

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Meet the Judges: The Orwell Prize for Journalism

The Orwell Prize for Journalism is awarded to a journalist for sustained reportage and/or commentary working in any medium. Inspired by Orwell’s example, the prize has rewarded and celebrated his values of bravery and fidelity to truth in journalism at home and abroad for over two decades.

A submission should consist of a minimum of three and a maximum of four articles in any combination of media. Entries may consist of one investigation, or a series of free-standing reports: in either case, the judges will be looking for sustained quality across the pieces.

The prize is free to enter, with no charges at any point, and entrants may include work published by different organisations.

“Our priority is journalism that is fearless, original and intellectually rigorous – work that holds power to account, brings clarity to complexity and amplifies voices too often unheard. Across long-form investigations, frontline reporting and urgent commentary, the prize recognises work where craft meets courage: writing that tells difficult truths with precision and purpose.”

At a time when press freedom is under attack and the business of news is being undermined by technological change, The Orwell Prize stands by the belief that political writing is both an art and a vital public service.”

Greg Williams, Chair of Judges 2026

Find out more about this year’s expert panel below and make your application by the end of the day today, Tuesday 31 March 2026, on the Orwell Foundation website.

Greg Williams (Chair)

Greg Williams is the former Editor-in-Chief of WIRED UK. A content creator, speaker and strategic forecaster who has held senior leadership roles in London and New York, Greg is interested in what’s coming next and understanding the ideas, organizations, trends and technologies that will shape the future.

Greg has written for numerous titles, including The Guardian, Newsweek and The Observer and was awarded British Society of Magazine Editors ‘Editor of the Year, Science & Technology’ in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2024. His longform story on the UK’s biggest ever cocaine heist was highly commended by the British Society of Magazine Editors. Greg was a judge of the Royal Society Science Book of the Year award 2018 and is the author of six novels.

Meenakshi Ravi

Meenakshi Ravi is an Executive Producer with Al Jazeera English. She has been with the channel since its launch and works across several programmes – including The Listening Post, which examines media power globally; All Hail, a series unpacking the social, economic, and political forces that define our lives; and debate and discussion shows such as Head to Head and Reframe. Before joining Al Jazeera, Meenakshi worked with CNBC in Mumbai, India.

Nick Davies

Nick Davies spent 40 years as a journalist, mainly doing investigative work for The Guardian. He was centrally involved in uncovering the phone-hacking scandal in Rupert Murdoch’s empire; initiating the alliance of news organisations which published US official secrets obtained by Wikileaks; and working in the team which handled Edward Snowden’s leaks about the US National Security Agency. He wrote six books including Flat Earth News which investigated the flow of falsehood, distortion and propaganda through mainstream news organisations; and Dark Heart which exposed the hidden world of UK poverty including the return of widespread child prostitution.

Sayeeda Warsi

Sayeeda, Baroness Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet Minister, is also a lawyer, businesswoman and racial justice campaigner and has consistently been listed as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world. Appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer at the age of thirty-six, she served as Chairman of the Conservative Party, in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and as Minister for Faith and Communities.

She is advisor at the Bridge Institute, Georgetown University Washington D.C, a member of the International Advisory Board on FORB, University of Notre Dame and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Greater Manchester.

Sayeeda is author of two books; The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain and Muslims Don’t Matter. She is a regular daytime TV presenter and news commentator. In 2024 she launched the award-winning Podcast ‘A Muslim and A Jew Go There’.

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Judging the Orwell Prize

Since the first annual Orwell Prizes were awarded in 1994, many distinguished figures from literature and journalism have served on its judging panels. New panels are now appointed each year, with independent panels for each prize, each one drawing on a broad range of experience and expertise.

The Orwell Prizes are politically independent: judges are required to put aside personal political beliefs and assess submissions purely on their merit and on whether they meet the prize criteria.

Find out more

“I have been seeing it on TV every day”: Raoul Peck revists Nineteen Eighty-Four

Earlier this week, acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) spoke to Channel 4 News about his new documentary, Orwell: 2+2=5, which is now showing in selected UK cinemas.

Where to watch

Support our work as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £60/year to help us continue this work.

Returning in a new format, and sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness is calling for entries from early-career journalists — those in the first eight years of their career, including those currently on accredited courses. It is, deliberately, a prize focused on the future.

Inspired by Orwell’s own social reporting, from Down and Out in Paris and London and essays like ‘The Spike’ to The Road to Wigan Pier we believe the best reporting handles data with rigour, brings the experiences of those affected to the fore, and shifts how the public, and those in power, think about homelessness in all its forms. If that sounds like the kind of work you want to do, or already are doing, this Prize is for you.

The winner receives £3,000 and the platform that comes with one of journalism’s most respected awards. Our previous winners and shortlistees tell us it will open doors: with editors, commissioners, and audiences who might not yet know your work.

The deadline for entries is Tuesday 31 March 2026, for work published 1 April 2025—31 March 2026.

If you’ve already published a piece you’re proud of this year, we’d encourage you to consider entering. This prize is here to back you: and to change the conversation.

Find out more and submit your entry at: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prizes/about/about-the-prizes/reporting-homelessness/

Enter the Prizes

The stories that matter deserve recognition

Britain’s most prestigious journalism awards are free to enter, open to all media, and welcome self-nomination as well as editor nominations.

Find out more

Our flagship Orwell Prize for Journalism accepts entries of three to four pieces of reportage or commentary across any combination of media. The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, now sponsored by Prospect Magazine, rewards sustained investigative work on issues like poverty, housing, disability and welfare.

And the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, reserved to journalists in the first eight years of their careers, and sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, welcomes impactful, evidence-based reporting on homelessness in all its forms.

Entries close Tuesday 31 March, for work published 1 April 2025—31 March 2026.

Meet the Judges

Support our work as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers can take part in our programmes, no matter their background. Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £60/year to help us continue this work.

Enter the Prizes

Also in this newsletter:

• Join us in London, 23 March, for the launch of the first complete edition of the letters of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's wife

• Highlights from the launch of Orwell & Truth in New York

• Orwell in the news: recent quotes and misquotes

The stories that matter deserve recognition

Britain’s most prestigious journalism awards are free to enter, open to all media, and welcome self-nomination as well as editor nominations.

Our flagship Orwell Prize for Journalism accepts three to four pieces of reportage or commentary across any combination of media. The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, now sponsored by Prospect Magazine, rewards sustained investigative work on issues like poverty, housing, disability and welfare.

And the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, reserved to journalists in the first eight years of their careers, and sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, welcomes impactful, evidence-based reporting on homelessness in all its forms.

All entries close Tuesday 31 March, for work published 1 April 2025—31 March 2026.

Find out more

Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words | University College London, 23 March

Join the editor Angela Smith, The Orwell Foundation and UCL Special Collections for the launch of the first exclusive annotated collection of the letters of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s wife.

The evening will feature an exclusive talk by Smith exploring Eileen’s fascinating relationship with the BBC, alongside materials from the UNESCO-Registered Orwell Archive on display. Copies of the book will be available for purchase refreshments will be provided, and there will be plenty of opportunity to mingle with fellow Orwell enthusiasts, Orwell scholars and the Foundation team.

Register (free event)

‘Orwell and Truth’, delves into George Orwell’s warnings about the lure of propaganda | NYU 4 March - 1 Dec 2026

Our new exhibition, ‘Orwell and Truth’, is now open to the public at New York University’s Kimmel Windows, in the heart of Greenwich Village, NY. Curated in partnership with University College London, home of the UNESCO-registered Orwell Archive, the exhibition examines how Orwell developed the interests, experience and characteristics that made him this most exceptional of writers.

“Orwell and Truth: On the Life and Legacy of Author George Orwell” will be on display along LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street, until December 2026.

Orwell in the news

• A US federal judge has invoked Orwell in a recent ruling, comparing the removal of references to slavery from a Philadelphia historical site to the Ministry of Truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four. District Judge Cynthia Rufe quoted the fictional agency's motto ("Ignorance Is Strength") in an order requiring the National Park Service to restore exhibits about enslaved people at the President's House on Independence Mall, which had been stripped out in January. "The federal government," she wrote, "does not have the power to dissemble and disassemble historical truths."

• In March 2026, outgoing U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quoted what she called a remark "often attributed to George Orwell" — "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." She was right to hedge: the quote does not appear anywhere in Orwell's work, and serious researchers have found no evidence he ever wrote it, though he made some superficially similar remarks.

Support our work as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers can take part in our programmes, no matter their background. Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £60/year to help us continue this work.

• Our new exhibition, Orwell and Truth, launches in New York

• Join us in London, 23 March, for the launch of the first complete edition of the letters of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's wife

• Orwell Youth Prize feedback under way: final deadline 29 April

Meet the Judges for The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils 2026

Sponsored by Prospect Magazine, the Prize honours reporting that investigates the social fabric of the UK, covering topics such as poverty, housing, education, disability, welfare, and the impacts of government policy.

Worth £5,000 to the winner, with prizes of £2,500 available to two runners-up, the goal of this important award is to bring underreported stories to national attention, and to support journalists working on difficult, long-term issues that may not lead the bulletins but carry lasting impact.

The judges will be looking for quality, sustained investigative journalism and story-telling across a broad range of issues and media, from podcasts to broadsheet. The Prize defines social problems and public policy in the widest sense.

Find out more about this year’s expert panel below and make your application by the deadline of Tuesday 31 March 2026 on the Orwell Foundation website.

Enter today

“We are keen to read, listen and watch any form of entry that diagnoses a social evil, analyses it and shines a light upon it. The more arresting and artfully constructed it is, the more it will correspond to the example of the great founder of this prize.” Philip Collins, Chair of Judges 2026

Philip Collins (Chair)

Phil founded The Draft in 2018 and leads all writing and editorial work. He was previously chief speechwriter to Tony Blair in 10 Downing Street and is now Editor in Chief of Prospect magazine. He is the author of six books and has previously been Chair of Trustees at Demos, the Director of the Social Market Foundation, a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford and an investment banker.

Abby Jitendra

Abby is a Principal Policy Adviser at thinktank Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the first sponsors of The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, where she leads a programme of policy, influencing and funding work on care, work and family. She has 10 years of experience in making policy change on work, welfare, and energy. She was named ‘Campaigner of the Year’ for her campaigning during the cost of living crisis while at Citizens Advice, and a ‘visionary to watch’ by Red Magazine in 2023.

Amber Rudd

Amber is the former MP for Hastings and Rye from 2010 to 2019. During that period she served in cabinet under three different PMs, and held the roles of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Home Secretary, Women and Equalities Minister, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

She now works in the private sector focusing on the energy sector. She is a Non Executive Director for both Centrica, and RyanAir and a Trustee for RUSI, the foreign policy think tank. She co-hosts the new Podcast, The Crisis Room , a weekly review of the latest foreign policy crisis.

Mina Smallman

Mina Smallman is a retired Anglican priest and former high school teacher, as well as an activist, and the author of A Better Tomorrow Life Lessons in Hope and Strength.

In June 2020, Mina’s daughters – Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman – were killed in a park by a stranger as they celebrated Bibaa’s birthday. Mina has been campaigning ever since, challenging the toxic culture in the Metropolitan Police, and calling out the wider institutional misogyny, racism and classism in Britain.

An Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, Mina was awarded the title of Emeritus the Venerable in recognition of her work as Archdeacon of Southend.

Enter the Prize

Judging the Orwell Prize

Since the first annual Orwell Prizes were awarded in 1994, many distinguished figures from literature and journalism have served on its judging panels. New panels are now appointed each year, with independent panels for each prize, each one drawing on a broad range of experience and expertise.

The Orwell Prizes are politically independent: judges are required to put aside personal political beliefs and assess submissions purely on their merit and on whether they meet the prize criteria.

Find out more

Book launch: Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words | University College London, 23 March

Join the editor Angela Smith, The Orwell Foundation and UCL Special Collections for the launch of the first exclusive annotated collection of the letters of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s wife.

Register (free event)

The evening will feature an exclusive talk by Smith exploring Eileen’s fascinating relationship with the BBC, alongside materials from the UNESCO-Registered Orwell Archive on display. Copies of the book will be available for purchase refreshments will be provided, and there will be plenty of opportunity to mingle with fellow Orwell enthusiasts, Orwell scholars and the Foundation team.

✍️ Your feedback is on the way!

Thank you to everyone who shared their work with us ahead of the Orwell Youth Prize feedback deadline earlier this month. We have had a brilliant response to this year’s theme, TRUTH, with over 750 young writers requesting individual feedback, and our dedicated volunteer readers are now hard at work preparing yours.

All entrants eligible for feedback will receive receive a response by April 8 at the latest, with plenty of time to make any tweaks before the final deadline (29 April). If you haven’t entered yet, there is still time to submit a final piece. Find out more about the prize, our theme, and our offer for young writers, on our website.

Enter the Prize

Support our work as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £60/year to help us continue this work.

‘Orwell and Truth’, delves into George Orwell’s warnings about the lure of propaganda | NYU 4 March - 1 Dec 2026

Last night in New York, we launched our new exhibition, ‘Orwell and Truth’, in partnership with New York University’s Kimmel Windows and University College London, home of the UNESCO-registered Orwell Archive.

Set to run through to December 2026, the exhibition will examine how Orwell developed the interests, experience and characteristics that made him this most exceptional of writers. Richard Blair, George Orwell’s son, attended the launch last night alongside Orwell’s great grandson, Archie Blair, and spoke about his memories of growing up on the island of Jura, where his father wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four.

“Orwell and Truth: On the Life and Legacy of Author George Orwell” is open to all at NYU’s Kimmel Windows, LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street, until December 2026.

• Join us in New York and London next month

• Our monthly highlight from the

• What makes good reporting about homelessness?

• Orwell Youth Prize feedback deadline: 25th February

Dear Friends,

After eighteen years of extraordinary leadership as Director, Professor Jean Seaton is retiring from the role. At the 2025 Prize Ceremony, Lord Ken Macdonald KC acknowledged Professor Seaton’s transformational contribution to the Foundation, describing her as “a true Orwellian in the best sense of the word”:

“In the end it is no exaggeration to say, and this is no less than the absolute truth, that the Foundation, the Prizes, none of this would exist today if it were not for Professor Seaton and her determination that Orwell’s vision to make political writing into an art should continue to be celebrated.”

We are delighted to announce that Jean will continue her connection to Orwell’s legacy as the Foundation’s first President and Ambassador-at-Large, while Liz Wallace becomes our new Director. Liz has been integral to the Foundation’s work and growth since joining the Foundation from BBC Westminster, where she had worked as a Political Reporter and News Editor.

Liz writes:

“What a privilege it is to be taking on the dual role of upholding the legacy of this singular author and celebrating the UK's best contemporary political journalism, fiction and non-fiction in his name. If it’s been a while since you picked up an Orwell essay or one of his better-known titles, I’d urge you to take another look. His writing encapsulates the fears and hopes of our time, even though he created his final work three quarters of a century ago.

Over the next five years, we plan to take forward the Prizes and associated events in reach and scope in the UK while also expanding internationally. Launching the Orwell Foundation fully in the United States is central to our mission, and we’ll make a start next month, with an exhibition entitled Orwell and Truth. Jointly curated with New York University and UCL’s UNESCO-registered George Orwell Archive, it will examine the importance Orwell attached to truth which, we believe, demands the forensic attention of us all at this moment.”

This month marks a new chapter in the history of the Foundation, with Kim Darroch also formally succeeding Ken Macdonald as our Chair. On his appointment in September 2025, Darroch described “Orwell’s values and principles, above all his commitment to truth” as “a light in the darkness of these troubled times.”

Looking to the future, we are thrilled to welcome new energy to our Board: Jack Sedman joins as Treasurer, and Najma Finlay will lead our work on the Orwell Book Prizes. And we are proud to welcome Yeva Paryliak and Eleni Barrett, both current Orwell Youth Fellows, as trainee trustees, bringing the perspectives of the young writers and thinkers we exist to champion. We are looking forward to introducing them all individually in the coming weeks.

We are grateful to everyone who has brought us to this moment, and excited for what comes next. Orwell’s legacy has never been more important.

With warm wishes,

The Orwell Foundation team

‘Orwell and Truth’, delves into George Orwell’s warnings about the lure of propaganda | NYU 4 March - 1 Dec 2026

From 4th March 2026, New York University’s Kimmel Windows will feature this timely exhibition, the first of its kind, curated in partnership with The Orwell Foundation and University College London.

Set to run through to December 2026, the exhibition will examine how Orwell developed the interests, experience and characteristics that made him this most exceptional of writers. At the launch in New York on Wednesday 4th March 2026 will be Orwell’s son, Richard Blair and his Great Grandson, Archie Blair; Orwell biographer, David Taylor; the Provost of UCL, Dr Michael Spence as well as members of NYU faculty and The Orwell Foundation.

Join us in New York

Book launch: Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words | University College London 23 March

Join the editor Angela Smith, The Orwell Foundation and UCL Special Collections for the launch of the first exclusive annotated collection of the letters of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s wife.

Register

The evening will feature an exclusive talk by Smith exploring Eileen’s fascinating relationship with the BBC, alongside materials from the UNESCO-Registered Orwell Archive on display. Copies of the book will be available for purchase refreshments will be provided, and there will be plenty of opportunity to mingle with Orwell scholars, enthusiasts, and the editorial team.

What makes good reporting on homelessness?

From Down and Out in Paris and London to The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s vivid reportage combined evidence with empathy. Crucially, he wrote about those on the receiving end of injustice with respect and dignity.

Inspired by Orwell, The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness aims to celebrate and showcase reporting and storytelling about homelessness that makes rigorous use of evidence and data, shares personal experiences of homelessness in an impactful way and helps to change the national conversation about the issue.

This year’s award, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, is dedicated to early career journalists. We asked this year's judges for their advice and insights.

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness has a special remit to celebrate accurate, impactful reporting on homelessness and what works to prevent it. The prize is reserved for journalists in the first eight years of their career, and the deadline for entry is 31 March 2026.

Find out more

“This government needs to be bolder and braver—and this probably means listening less to its MPs.”

A striking feature of Rachel Reeves’s recent budget was the frequency with which she name-checked (or, more precisely, constituency-checked) backbench Labour MPs. Head over to the PQ blog to read Deborah Mabbett on what Reeves’s speech reveals about the role of MPs and the limits of our current political imagination.

“The idea that MPs are in touch with the real world through their constituency offices has been turned into an article of political faith,” Professor Mabbett writes, “but it is ill-founded.”

PQ is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, blog and events programme, they are the founding sponsor of The Orwell Prize. You can also find them on Substack.

Read on

The Orwell Youth Prize: enter by 25 February and receive free, personalised feedback!

The Orwell Youth Prize uses the writing of George Orwell to inspire you to write about your own ideas and experiences.

It’s open to everyone at secondary school or college in the UK, or on a UK curriculum. This year’s theme is TRUTH. All entries will be read by our experienced volunteer readers and everyone who enters by our feedback deadline of 25^th February 2026 is offered personalised feedback, with helpful tips to help make your entry the best it can be. The final deadline is 29^th April 2026.

Find out more

• Read the Orwell Foundation’s response to the UK Curriculum review

• Our monthly highlight from the Political Quarterly

• All the latest Orwell Prize news

Meet the Judges for The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness 2026

Homelessness and poverty were among the first subjects which George Orwell tackled as a writer, long before he became famous as the author of Animal Farm. From Down and Out in Paris and London to The Road to Wigan Pier and essays like ‘The Spike’, his vivid reportage combined evidence with empathy, describing the root causes of homelessness and poverty and their brutal impact. Crucially, he wrote about those on the receiving end of injustice with respect and dignity.

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored and supported by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, invites early career reporters to follow in George Orwell’s footsteps by placing homelessness, in all its forms, at the heart of our national conversation. This year, the prize is exclusively reserved for journalists who are in the first eight years of their careers.

Find out more about this year’s expert panel below and make your application by the deadline of 31 March 2026 on the Orwell Foundation website.

“We are living through a housing crisis and it couldn’t be more important to shine a light on the problems we face and the reform we need.” Michael Gove, Chair of Judges, 2026 Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness

Find out more

Michael Gove (Chair)

Michael Gove is the Editor of The Spectator. As the former Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and UK Government Cabinet Minister, he served in Cabinet across five government departments for more than a decade, from the 2010 Coalition government onwards, including as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (2021-2022). In May 2025, Michael was made a peer in Rishi Sunak’s honours list and joined the House of Lords, choosing the title of Lord Gove of Torry.

Sarah O’Connor

Sarah O’Connor is a columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times, where she writes about employment, technology and economics. She first joined the FT in 2007, and she has reported from London, Washington DC and Reykjavik.

Her first book, on work and technology, will be published in 2026 by Allen Lane in the UK and Godine in the US.

Lígia Teixeira

Lígia Teixeira is the founding Chief Executive of the Centre for Homelessness Impact, part of the UK’s What Works Network and sponsors of The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness. She founded the Centre in 2018 to bring rigorous evidence, creativity, and systems thinking to the mission of ending homelessness — helping governments and communities focus on what works.

Before establishing the Centre, she led the evidence and impact programme at Crisis UK and held research roles at the Young Foundation, the Refugee Council, and the International Labour Organisation.

Mel Young

Mel Young is President of the Homeless World Cup which he co-founded in 2003. Under his leadership, the organisation has expanded all over the world and now has partners in over 70 countries, touching the lives of over 100,000 homeless people every year – more than one million people in the last decade.

Having initially worked as a journalist, including on a community newspaper in Wester Hailes in Edinburgh, he co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland in 1993. He believes passionately that homelessness can be ended and has dedicated most of his life since 1993 to working to change the lives of those experiencing it.

Judging the Orwell Prize

Since the first annual Orwell Prizes were awarded in 1994, many distinguished figures from literature and journalism have served on its judging panels. New panels are now appointed each year, with independent panels for each prize, each one drawing on a broad range of experience and expertise.

The Orwell Prizes are politically independent: judges are required to put aside personal political beliefs and assess submissions purely on their merit and on whether they meet the prize criteria.

Find out more

✍️ Our response to the curriculum review

Inspired by Orwell’s example, the Orwell Youth Prize introduces young people to the importance of critical thinking, clear writing and respectful dialogue. The recent curriculum review’s call for an “oracy framework” in the UK is welcome, but could go further given today’s challenges and the lessons we have learnt from ten years delivering The Orwell Youth Prize programme.

Read our response

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work.

‘How Trump Gets on Our Nerves’ | Political Quarterly featured article

Head to the Political Quarterly blog to read about a new study by Stephen Coleman examining the “mood effects of Trumpism” in the United States. “It seemed to me that most of my interviewees were expressing forms of political anxiety,” he writes, “but nearly all of them insisted that they were angry rather than anxious.”

Read on

PQ is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, blog and events programme, they are the founding sponsor of The Orwell Prize. You can also find them on Substack.

In case you missed it: news and views

• The original publishers of our 2020 winner Kate Clanchy (Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me) have apologised to her “and many others” for what they describe as “a regrettable series of events in Pan Macmillan's past.”

• “Orwell never wanted to be sentimental about nature, or about the seasons. But he did think that seasonal cycles tell us important things about our dreams, complicating our myths of power and control.” Read Nathan Waddell on “what January taught Orwell about control and resistance”.

• “Raja Shehadeh Believes Israelis and Palestinians Can Still Find Peace”: The New York Times recently ran an interview with our 2008 Orwell Prize for Political Writing winner Raja Shehadeh (Palestinian Walks).

The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers over the years, and we are always on the look out for opportunities to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist, in any category, and would like to share news in a future edition of this newsletter please get in touch.

In a piece of original research drawing on long-term trends, historical context, and Nineteen Eighty-Four itself, Pinker argued that many of the novel’s darkest predictions have not come to pass. To see why, he suggests returning to the heart of the book: Winston Smith’s confrontation with O’Brien in Room 101:

“In 2025, with the benefit of 77 years since Orwell imagined his dystopia, and 41 years since the time it was set… it would seem that it was Winston Smith who won the debate. There is something called human nature, and for all its limitations, it includes capacities for sympathy, for justice, for knowledge, and for truth.”

Read the lecture in The Times

The lecture was followed by a wide-ranging Q&A, hosted by Orwell Foundation Chair of Trustees Ken Macdonald and opened by our former Youth Prize winner Bella Rew, who highlighted the role of imaginative fiction in democratic life. As Rew put it, perhaps Nineteen Eighty-Four endures precisely because it helps us avoid the future it describes?

Our thanks to Professor Pinker, to the Southbank Centre for hosting the Orwell Lecture for a second consecutive year, to all our sponsors, Patrons and Friends, and to everyone who joined us.

As Professor Pinker reminded us:

“History is full of surprises, occasionally pleasant ones, so all prophecies are fallible.”

Reserve your spot at next year’s Orwell Lecture as a Friend or Patron

Inspired by Orwell, we believe in a decent society where thought is free, truth is valued and brave writing is celebrated.

As Professor Pinker reminded us last week, the work of sustaining truthful public discourse is not abstract. Rather, it depends on our ability to speak freely, to think clearly, and to come together to build a shared understanding of our world.

At the Orwell Foundation, these principles guide everything we do. Inspired by Orwell’s commitment to clarity, honesty and intellectual bravery, we work to create spaces where thought is free and ideas are openly tested.

Become a Friend or Patron of the Orwell Foundation to help us continue our mission, and enjoy benefits including a free ticket to next year’s Orwell Lecture.

Join us today

Resources for Teachers: Orwell and Truth

Teachers looking to introduce students to the Orwell Youth Prize and our new theme can draw on our updated set of free classroom resources, including adaptable lesson plans, an assembly-ready slide deck and inspiration from Orwell himself.

By writing for the prize, students can explore different forms, from creative pieces and articles to poetry and even game design, with guides created by Orwell Youth Fellows and past Prize winners. Our resources are suitable for use in class, in extracurricular sessions or as homework, and are designed to support students as they develop their ideas and shape their entries for the 2026 Prize.

Browse our resources

ORWELL: 2+2=5 to reach UK cinemas in March 2026

A major new documentary, ORWELL: 2+2=5, directed by Raoul Peck and featuring Damian Lewis as the voice of George Orwell, will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on 27 March 2026. Peck combines archival footage, readings from Orwell’s writing, and contemporary material to create a vivid portrait of Orwell’s political imagination, and a timely reflection on terms like “Big Brother” and “Newspeak”.

Premiered at Cannes and screened at major festivals worldwide, the film offers a striking re-examination of Orwell’s relevance. today.

We are making plans for our own screening(s) through the Foundation and will share further details about the release and event information in the new year.

The 2026 Orwell Prizes are now open for entries

The Orwell Foundation is now accepting entries for its six annual Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting.

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is returning this year thanks to sponsorship by Prospect Magazine, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, also returns with a new remit to celebrate early-career journalists. Together with the Orwell Prize for Journalism, these prizes reflect our commitment to championing brave, impactful and evidence-based reporting, in the best tradition of George Orwell.

Winners will be announced on 25th June 2026 at the Bloomsbury Theatre, as part of University College London’s year-long bicentennial celebration, UCL200, alongside two book prizes (Political Writing and Political Fiction) and The Orwell Youth Prize.

Meet the Judges: Political Fiction

Stay connected

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky and X/Twitter for the latest news, events, and opportunities.

Over the years, The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters, and we are always on the look out to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of Orwell News, please get in touch.

• Grab a last minute ticket to next week’s Orwell Lecture with Steven Pinker

• Volunteer with The Orwell Youth Prize and support young people through personal feedback on their writing

As we open submissions for the 2026 Orwell Prizes we are delighted to introduce this year’s judging panels, beginning today with the judges of The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Their task: to identify the novel or collection of stories that best illuminates the political through the art of narrative.

The Political Fiction Prize honours fiction that engages with the world as it is, and as it might be, in the best tradition of George Orwell’s own creative legacy, with previous winners including Donal Ryan, Hisham Matar, Claire Keegan, Tom Crewe and Ali Smith. First awarded in 2019, it sits alongside The Orwell Prize for Political Writing (for non-fiction), our journalism awards (Journalism, Exposing Britain’s Social Evils and Reporting Homelessness) and The Orwell Youth Prize.

“Fiction may be the best way we have of walking in someone else’s shoes. In divisive and polarised times, this is in itself a meaningful political act. With my fellow judges, I will be looking for illumination – for a novel that, in form, style and content, portrays our common humanity, the world we live in and the many challenges that are sent to test us: in short, a novel that Orwell himself would have admired.” Fiammetta Rocco, Chair of Judges, Political Fiction

Since the first annual Orwell Prizes were awarded in 1994, many distinguished figures from literature and journalism have served on its judging panels. New panels are now appointed each year, with independent panels for each prize, each one drawing on a broad range of experience and expertise.

The Orwell Prizes are politically independent: judges are required to put aside personal political beliefs and assess submissions purely on their merit and on whether they meet the prize criteria.

Meet the Judges for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2026

Fiammetta Rocco (Chair)

After growing up in Kenya, Fiammetta Rocco read Arabic at Oxford before spending 25 years as culture editor at The Economist. She now runs the International Booker Prize and is a celebrated writer and critic whose work has been recognised on both sides of the Atlantic. Her book The Miraculous Fever-Tree traced the discovery of quinine across continents. Fiammetta divides her time between London and Scotland and serves as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Scarlett Baron

Scarlett Baron is an Associate Professor of English at University College London, home of the Orwell Archive, and a scholar of literary modernism and intertextuality. She is the author of ‘Strandentwining Cable’: Joyce, Flaubert, and Intertextuality and The Birth of Intertextuality, and her current research explores the politics and poetics of autofiction. She also co-hosts the ‘Selfy Stories’ podcast, examining philosophical conceptions of the self through contemporary literature.

Olivette Otele

Olivette Otele is a Historian, Memory scholar, and the Distinguished Research Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London. She is the author of African Europeans, shortlisted for the LA Times Book Prize and for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2021. A regular contributor to the Guardian and the BBC, and a broadcaster on major documentary projects, Olivette also advises policymakers on restorative justice and colonial history.

Cal Revely-Calder

Cal Revely-Calder is the literary editor of The Telegraph and an award-winning critic whose bylines include the New Yorker, London Review of Books, and Times Literary Supplement. His criticism has been recognised by the Guardian and Frieze. A book on convenience culture is forthcoming with Verso.

About The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction

Launched in 2019, the Political Fiction Prize recognises novels and short-story collections published in the UK or Ireland that illuminate major social or political themes through the art of narrative.

The Prize was created when the former Orwell Book Prize was divided into two awards: Political Writing (non-fiction) and Political Fiction, allowing each form to be judged on its terms, and celebrating the full range of Orwell’s legacy.

For publishers

We welcome submissions from across the literary landscape, published between 1st June 2025 and 31st May 2026 by a recognised publisher or imprint based in the UK or Ireland. Fiction does not need to be ‘about politics’ in the narrow sense; it only needs to illuminate something politically significant - from power and freedom to identity, technology, conflict and community - through powerful storytelling.

Full eligibility and submission details are available on the Foundation website.

Entry to both our book prizes will close on 26 January 2026

Find out more

The Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

Nineteen Eighty-Four and Twenty Twenty-Five

7.30pm, 4 December | Southbank Centre, London, UK

There is still time to grab a seat at this year’s Orwell Lecture, which will be delivered by Steven Pinker, best-selling author and experimental cognitive psychologist. Tickets are selling fast, so book now to secure your spot.

In a piece of original research conducted specifically for this event, Pinker will consider the ‘prophecies’ made by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, taking the year in which it was written, the year in which it was set and today, and analysing shifts in language, democracy, prosperity and security across the globe at these points in time.

Book now

✍️ Join us as a volunteer

The work of our volunteer readers is what makes the Orwell Youth Prize unique. As a volunteer, you'll be supporting young people with personal feedback as they develop their writing, ideas and confidence.

We have been running training sessions this week, with an additional slot available this coming Tuesday 2 December, 4-5pm GMT.

We are looking for experienced writers willing to engage thoughtfully with young people’s entries to the Orwell Youth Prize. By volunteering, you’ll:

✏️ Support the next generation of critical thinkers

📚 Help nurture young voices exploring social and political themes

🤝 Join a growing community of writers, editors, academics and educators

⏱️ Give just a short amount of time, with real impact

If you can join us for next week’s session, or want to register your interest, we’d be delighted to have you. Just drop us an email at admin@orwellyouthprize.co.uk.

Find out more

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers across the UK can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work.

Keeping in touch

The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters over the years, and we are always on the look out for opportunities to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist, in any category, and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of this newsletter please get in touch.

The Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

Nineteen Eighty-Four and Twenty Twenty-Five

7.30pm, 4 December | Southbank Centre, London, UK | Book now

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Orwell Lecture, set up to shine a light on brave writing, will be delivered by Steven Pinker, best-selling author and experimental cognitive psychologist. In a piece of original research conducted specifically for this event, Pinker will consider the “prophecies” made by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The best-selling author and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University will look at the year in which it was written (1948), the year in which it was set (1984) and today, analysing shifts in language, democracy, prosperity and security across the globe at these points in time.

Book now

Steven Pinker is known for his research on language, cognition and human nature, writing for publications such as the New York Times, Time and The Atlantic. His latest book Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows (Penguin) explores the theory of ‘common knowledge’ and ‘the science of harmony, hypocrisy and outrage’.

The Orwell Lecture has been given annually since 1989 in memory of the author, essayist and journalist George Orwell. The lecture has attracted notable speakers over the years including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Ian McEwan, Dame Hilary Mantel and Dr Rowan Williams.

Become a Friend or Patron today to claim your free ticket to this year’s Orwell Lecture and support the next generation of young writers.

Become a Friend

✍️ Introducing… Project Dreamcatcher

What if your dreams aren’t your own?

We are excited to announce a new creative serialisation from The Orwell Youth Fellows: Project Dreamcatcher.

Project Dreamcatcher is a new serialisation, by newsletter, inspired from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The project, which will run for the next three months, blends a range of forms in its dive into the future of surveillance, privacy, and the future of imagination itself.

Subscribe to the Project Dreamcatcher Substack for new writing, graphics, and reflections from our Fellows as they bring this new world to life.

Project Dreamcatcher

The Orwell Youth Fellows are a collective of previous winners and runners up in The Orwell Youth Prize. In their regular, facilitated meetings, they form ideas, start conversations and develop new writing that is responsive to the society we live in and supports other young writers to engage with the Foundation’s work.

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of the Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers across the UK can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work.

Keeping in touch

The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters over the years - and we are always on the look out for opportunities to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist or judge, in any category, and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of this newsletter, please get in touch.

“No one, or no one I can remember, ever writes of an execution with approval.”

First published in Tribune, 3 November 1944

Subscribe to our serial, Orwell Daily, for curated highlights from George Orwell’s legendary journalism. This edition finds Orwell in a grizzly mood, as he sets about compiling a personal anthology of writing about public executions: the subject of his own celebrated essay “A Hanging”.

Read on

✍️ The Orwell Youth Prize launches in Scotland

Last week, the Orwell Youth Prize launched its 2026 theme, Truth, with a landmark visit to Scotland, inspiring over 130 young people from Islay to Glasgow to write about what truth means to them. Every participant left with a free book by Orwell, or copy of our anthology—and we left with the first entries for this year’s Prize.

The Orwell Youth Prize 2026 is now open to entries from all young people at school or college in the UK. Visit our website for free resources to bring the Orwell Youth Prize into your classroom, or join us as a Friend or Patron to support our work.

Join us today

On Islay, students from the High School joined community members and the Islay Book Festival to hear Richard Blair, Orwell’s son, speak about his childhood on Jura and the importance of truthful writing in a world facing growing threats to democracy. Richard also shared a remarkable story of his father arriving in Port Ellen to catch the ferry to Glasgow, only to find it cancelled. With nowhere to stay, Orwell asked for a bed at the local police station, where he was hosted by none other than the father of George Robertson, the future head of NATO.

Workshops followed, facilitated by Orwell’s great grandson Archie Blair, Quentin Kopp, and Foundation staff, helping students explore journalism, creative writing, and critical thinking. We also reconnected with Youth Prize runner-up Tabby Fletcher, a student at Islay High. Tabby has recently launched a campaign against single-use plastics, which is a major issue on the islands, across Scotland, and globally: her inspirational campaign has been featured in The Ileach and The Guardian.

The next day, at the University of Strathclyde, students from state schools across the Glasgow area joined sessions led by writers Denise Mina and Orwell Prize winner Darren McGarvey, supported by faculty at the university and former Youth Prize winner Benjamin McEwan. This time, the workshops covered a range of forms including journalism, flash fiction, spoken word, and even crime writing.

These visits mark a new chapter for the Prize in Scotland, connecting new communities to Orwell’s legacy and inspiring young people to write with clarity, honesty, and courage. Special thanks to the Barcapel Foundation for supporting the project: we can’t wait to come back.

“A magnificent creative experience” – Dr Michael Higgins

About the Prize

4 December: The Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

Southbank Centre, London, UK

Book now to attend this year’s Orwell Lecture, set up to shine a light on brave writing, which will be delivered by best-selling author and experimental cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker. This annual event celebrates the enduring legacy of George Orwell, with lecturers tasked with addressing “any subject Orwell might have been interested in”, and Steven Pinker will be delivering an original lecture bringing together Orwell’s relevance to our moment with his own research.

Book your tickets today, or attend for free as a Friend or Patron. Friends and Patrons enjoy free entry to this lecture and all future lectures. Join from just £5/month to secure your place and support the next generation of young writers.

Become a Friend

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of The Orwell Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of our supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers across the UK can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work and attend this year’s Orwell Lecture free.

The 2026 Orwell Prizes are now open for entries

The Orwell Foundation is now accepting entries for its six annual Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting.

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is returning this year thanks to sponsorship by Prospect Magazine, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, also returns with a new remit to celebrate early-career journalists. Together with the Orwell Prize for Journalism, these prizes reflect our commitment to championing brave, impactful and evidence-based reporting, in the best tradition of George Orwell.

Winners will be announced on 25th June 2026 at the Bloomsbury Theatre, as part of University College London’s year-long bicentennial celebration, UCL200, alongside two book prizes (Political Writing and Political Fiction) and The Orwell Youth Prize.

Meet the Judges

Stay connected

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky and X/Twitter for the latest news, events, and opportunities.

Over the years, The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters, and we are always on the look out to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of Orwell News, please get in touch.

The Orwell Foundation is now accepting entries for its six annual Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting.

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is returning this year thanks to sponsorship by Prospect Magazine, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, also returns with a new remit to celebrate early-career journalists. Together with the Orwell Prize for Journalism, these prizes reflect our commitment to championing brave, impactful and evidence-based reporting, in the best tradition of George Orwell.

Winners will be announced on 25th June 2026 at the Bloomsbury Theatre, as part of University College London’s year-long bicentennial celebration, UCL200, alongside two book prizes (Political Writing and Political Fiction) and The Orwell Youth Prize.

Unique panels of independent judges have been announced for each prize. The Orwell Prize for Political Writing will be chaired by Rohan Silva, founder of Libreria bookshop in Spitalfields, and the Political Fiction Prize will be chaired by writer, critic and former culture editor of The Economist, Fiammetta Rocco.

Greg Williams, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED UK will chair this year’s Journalism Prize, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will be chaired by editor of The Spectator, former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove. The chair for The Orwell Prize for Britain’s Social Evils will be Philip Collins, founder of The Draft and editor of Prospect Magazine.

Alongside Silva, The Orwell Prize for Political Writing will be judged by writer and journalist Jessie Lau; technology business editor at The Time, Katie Prescott; Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, Lawrence Freedman; and founding editor of Works in Progress and head of publishing at Stripe, Sam Bowman. Rohan Silva said:

In 2026, the Political Writing prize will celebrate George Orwell’s commitment to lucid prose, speaking truth to power and skewering authoritarianism. When Elon Musk wore an ‘What would Orwell think?’ t-shirt to address a Tommy Robinson march recently, it showed how Orwell’s ideas have never been more relevant – or more contested. It’s a privilege – albeit a daunting one – to be chairing this prize at a moment when illiberal forces across the political spectrum are seeking to curtail freedom of expression and thought.

Joining Fiammetta Rocco, the judges of the Fiction Prize will be Cal Revely-Calder, literary editor of The Telegraph; Olivette Otele, Distinguished Research Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London; and Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at University College London. Rocco said:

Fiction may be the best way we have of walking in someone else’s shoes. In divisive and polarised times, this is in itself a meaningful political act. With my fellow judges, I will be looking for illumination – for a novel that, in form, style and content, portrays our common humanity, the world we live in and the many challenges that are sent to test us: in short, a novel that Orwell himself would have admired.

Joining Greg Williams on The Orwell Prize for Journalism judging panel will be lawyer, businesswoman and racial justice campaigner Sayeeda Warsi; Executive Producer with Al Jazeera English Meenakshi Ravi; and acclaimed investigative journalist Nick Davies. Greg Williams said:

Our priority is journalism that is fearless, original and intellectually rigorous – work that holds power to account, brings clarity to complexity and amplifies voices too often unheard. Across long-form investigations, frontline reporting and urgent commentary, the prize recognises work where craft meets courage: writing that tells difficult truths with precision and purpose.

At a time when press freedom is under attack and the business of news is being undermined by technological change, The Orwell Prize stands by the belief that political writing is both an art and a vital public service.

On the panel for The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evil, chair Philip Collins will be joined by activist and author, Mina Smallman; former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd; and Principal Policy Adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Abby Jitendra. Collins said:

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is designed to expose the solid truths of how we live. Sometimes through incompetence, sometimes through neglect, and sometimes through design, some people in Britain labour under the weight of serious social problems.

We are keen to read, listen and watch any form of entry that diagnoses a social evil, analyses it and shines a light upon it. The more arresting and artfully constructed it is, the more it will correspond to the example of the great founder of this prize.

In addition to Michael Gove, this year’s Reporting Homelessness Prize panel will include Lígia Teixeira, CEO of the Centre for Homelessness Impact, Sarah O’Connor, columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times, and Mel Young, advocate and President of the Homeless World Cup. In order to encourage and support early-career social reporters, this year’s Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will be open to journalists in the first eight years of their career. Michael Gove said:

I’m flattered and delighted to be judging the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness. We are living through a housing crisis and it couldn’t be more important to shine a light on the problems we face and the reform we need.

Judges for The Orwell Youth Prize were also announced today, with entries invited in response to the theme TRUTH. The panel will be composed of author/journalists Sophia Smith Galer and James Bloodworth, alongside actor, writer and activist, Nandana Dev Sen.

Find out more

Named in honour of the author and journalist George Orwell, the prizes are built on the foundation of Orwell’s values and in the qualities found in his own work: clarity, courage, critical thinking and imagination. Each Orwell Prize is worth between £3,000 and £5,000 to the winner, while the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize receive a cash prize, a selection of books by George Orwell and books for their schools.

More information about all The Orwell Prizes, including individual eligibility criteria and entry forms are available on our website. A list of finalists for all the prizes will be announced in May 2026. For closing dates, please see our key milestones.

4 December: The Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

Southbank Centre, London, UK

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Orwell Lecture, set up to shine a light on brave writing, will be delivered by Steven Pinker, best-selling author and experimental cognitive psychologist. This annual event celebrates the enduring legacy of George Orwell, with lecturers tasked with addressing “any subject Orwell might have been interested in”, and Steven Pinker will be delivering an original lecture bringing together Orwell’s relevance to our moment with his own research.

Book your tickets today, or attend for free as a Friend or Patron.

Book now

The Orwell Youth Prize uses the writing of George Orwell to inspire you to write about your own ideas and experiences. It’s open to everyone at secondary school or college in the UK, or on a UK curriculum. This year’s theme is TRUTH.

“There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

What does truth mean to you? What threats are there to truth, in this country and around the world? The Orwell Youth Prize gives you:

• the freedom to write about what matters to you, in your own way

• support to make your work the best it can be

• a platform for your voice and ideas

• a chance to win a cash prize and books for you and for your school

Head to our website for resources and lesson plans for teachers, inspiration and support for young writers, posters for schools and libraries, and much more.

Find out more

Our unique feedback offer

We offer personalised feedback and a fair judging process to every young person who enters, because we believe this support should be accessible to all, not just a privileged few. If you are an experienced writer and would like to support our young writers, click here to find out more and then apply when you’re ready

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of The Orwell Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers across the UK can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work and attend this year’s Orwell Lecture free.

Keeping in touch

The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters over the years and we are always on the look out to support and celebrate them. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of Orwell News, please get in touch.

• Announcing the Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

• Volunteer and teacher opportunities

• Orwell in the news, plus our highlight from the Political Quarterly

4 December: The Orwell Lecture 2025 with Steven Pinker

Southbank Centre, London, UK

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Orwell Lecture, set up to shine a light on brave writing, will be delivered by Steven Pinker, best-selling author and experimental cognitive psychologist. This annual event celebrates the enduring legacy of George Orwell, with lecturers tasked with addressing “any subject Orwell might have been interested in”, and Steven Pinker will be delivering an original lecture bringing together Orwell’s relevance to our moment with his own research.

Book your tickets today, or attend for free as a Friend or Patron.

Book now

The Orwell Lecture has been held annually since 1989, and past speakers have included Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Ian McEwan, Dame Hilary Mantel and Dr Rowan Williams. The lecture, which is returning to the Southbank for a second consecutive year, is generously sponsored by Richard Blair, Orwell’s son.

Friends and Patrons enjoy free entry to this lecture and all future lectures. Join from £5/month to secure your place and support the next generation of young writers.

Become a Friend

Coming Up: the 2026 Orwell Prizes launch 28 October

The UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting open this Tuesday, when we’ll also reveal this year’s expert judging panels.

The launch is taking place at a special Orwell Youth Prize even at Islay High School in the Inner Hebrides, a stone’s throw away from the remote farmhouse where Orwell completed Nineteen Eighty-Four; we are especially grateful to the Barcapel Foundation for supporting our work in Scotland. We’ll bring you all the highlights in a special edition of Orwell News next week.

✍️ Join us as a volunteer

The work of our volunteers is what makes the Orwell Youth Prize unique. We offer personalised feedback and a fair judging process to every young person who enters, because we believe this support should be accessible to all, not just a privileged few.

After a record number of entries in 2025, we are now recruiting new volunteers. Our current team includes publishing professionals, academics, teachers, writers, journalists and former Orwell Prize winners and runners-up. If you are an experienced writer and would like to support our young writers, click here to find out more and then apply when you’re ready

Support the next generation of brave writers as a Friend of The Orwell Foundation

Every workshop, every piece of individual feedback, and every creative resource relies on the generosity of supporters. Your contribution ensures that talented young writers across the UK can take part in our programmes, no matter their background.

Join as a Friend or Patron today from just £5/month to help us continue this work and attend this year’s Orwell Lecture free.

📝 Calling All Teachers

From free resources to individual feedback for every student, we are always looking to improve the Youth Prize experience in schools. If you’ve used the programme in the classroom, or are considering it this year, we’d love your feedback. Every completed survey will be entered into our prize draw.

Take the survey

“Do Putin and other state officials really believe their civilisational rhetoric?”

Head to the Political Quarterly blog to read Geoffrey Roberts’ review of Russia’s World Order: How Civilizationism Explains the Conflict with the West.

PQ is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, blog and events programme, PQ is the founding sponsor of The Orwell Prize. You can also find them on Substack.

Orwell in the News

• “It’s Not Enough to Read Orwell”: Shirley Li writes for The Atlantic on Raoul Peck’s new film Orwell: 2+2=5. We were lucky enough to attend the UK premiere in London earlier this month. Introducing the screening, Peck said: “Orwell’s words were so immediate, so current. What I did not expect is that he would grow so organically from my own life, my own experience.”

• The Dawit Isaak Library in Sweden has created the world’s first double-bound book: a special unreadable edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four

• “How George Orwell’s 1945 essay predicted the Cold War and nuclear proliferation”: Ibrahim Al-Marashi for The Conversation UK

Keeping in touch

The Orwell Prizes have given a platform to hundreds of exceptional writers and reporters over the years, and we are always on the look out to support and celebrate our alumni. If you are a former Orwell Prize finalist and would like to share an update about your work in a future edition of Orwell News, please get in touch.

“Our society is not only so arranged that if you have money you can buy luxuries with it. After all, that is what money is for. It is also so arranged that if you don’t have money you pay for it at every hour of the day with petty humiliations and totally unnecessary discomforts...” 6 October 1944

Subscribe to Orwell Daily for curated extracts from Orwell’s legendary journalism and hidden gems from the archive, delivered to your inbox on the day.

We are delighted to welcome Lord Darroch, the former British ambassador to the United States, as The Orwell Foundation’s new Chair of Trustees. Lord Darroch will assume the role in January 2026, taking over from Lord Ken Macdonald KC, who has steered the charity through a decade of significant growth.

Lord Darroch said:

“I am honoured to have been invited to take on the role of Chair of the Board… George Orwell has been a hero of mine since my schoolboy days of reading Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

I first became involved in the Foundation’s work when I chaired the judging panel for the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Writing; an experience that was both enriching and inspiring. Orwell’s values and principles, above all his commitment to truth, are a light in the darkness of these troubled times. The Foundation’s work is more relevant than ever”

Visit our website to read the full story.

Orwell’s values have never been more contested - and his name is never far from the news. This week, he was even on a certain tech titan’s T-shirt, beamed into central London via video-link. Writing in the Observer, Orwell’s biographer D. J. Taylor asks a simple question: what would Orwell think?

Elsewhere, Raoul Peck’s new documentary, Orwell: 2+2=5 is showing at the London Film Festival next month, with wider UK release to follow (US release date 3 October). Peck channels the clarity and urgency of Orwell’s prose into a gripping cinematic reflection on our troubled world. We think it will be essential viewing.

This month, we’re sharing news from The Orwell Youth Prize, as well as our regular featured article from our sponsors The Political Quarterly. We can also reveal that the 2026 Orwell Prizes will be opening for entries on 28 October.

We start, however, with updates from two Orwell Prize-nominated investigations. We hope these regular updates will celebrate the brilliant writers and journalists nominated for our awards. If you are a former finalist or winner, in any category, and would like to share your own news, get in touch at info@orwellfoundation.com. We’d love to hear from you.

The Orwell Foundation team

Spotlight on Investigations

The Murder of Agnes Wanjiru

In 2022, David Collins and Hannah Al-Othman were highly commended in The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils for a Sunday Times investigation into the murder of Agnes Wanjiru. Now, Kenya is seeking the arrest of a former British soldier. Hannah Al-Othman has the latest report in the The Guardian.

Stephen Lawrence: official review begins

Daniel De Simone’s essential reporting, shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Journalism, triggered an official review of the murder of Stephen Lawrence. That review has now begun, with Stephen’s mother Doreen Lawrence appealing for new witnesses to come forward.

"This is the last opportunity that we're going to have to get the complete justice that… Stephen so deserves.”

🎉 Coming Up: The Orwell Prizes open 28 October

We’ve been working behind the scenes to get ready for the opening of this year’s Orwell Prizes on 28 October 2026. We will be launching the awards and revealing our new judging panels at a special Orwell Youth Prize event on the Scottish island of Islay, just a stone’s throw from where Orwell completed Nineteen Eighty-Four.

October’s launch will also see the release of our exciting new Youth Prize theme. Further highlights to look forward to include workshops in Islay and Glasgow with local writers including Orwell Prize-winner Darren McGarvey and fresh creative resources tackling some of the biggest issues facing the world today, all designed to spark creativity, inspire debate and encourage young people to write about what matters most to them.

We’re also delighted to be welcoming a new cohort of Youth Fellows this October. These brilliant young voices will be joining our previous winners and runners-up, who will soon be sharing their latest creative writing project: a dystopian world where even our dreams can be controlled. Dark, thrilling, and, just maybe, a little hopeful.

Stay tuned and watch this space…

✍️ Join us as a volunteer

The work of our volunteers is what makes the Orwell Youth Prize unique. We offer personalised feedback and a fair judging process to every young person who enters — we believe this support should be accessible to all, not just a privileged few.

After a record number of entries in 2025, we are now recruiting new volunteers.
If you are an experienced writer and would like to support our young writers:

• Click here to find out more

• Apply now when you’re ready

📝 Calling All Teachers

From free resources to individual feedback for every student, we are always looking to improve the Youth Prize experience in schools. If you’ve used The Orwell Youth Prize in the classroom in the past, or are considering it this year, we’d love your feedback.

Every completed survey will be entered into our prize draw.

Take the survey

Support The Orwell Foundation

The Orwell Foundation is a charity dedicated to keeping Orwell’s legacy alive.
Become a Friend or Patron from just £5/month and enjoy exclusive benefits, including a copy of our annual anthology, exclusive events and priority booking.

“People are no longer voting for what they want—they’re voting against what they fear. That’s not democracy; it’s damage control.”

Over on the Political Quarterly blog, Alex Cobb makes the case for democratic reform in the UK - and offers a few lessons from the Swiss, while our own Sam Taylor Hill casts a critical eye on Britain’s immigration debate.

PQ is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, blog and events programme, PQ are the founding sponsors of The Orwell Prizes. You can also find them right here on Substack.

Read on

In 1946, Vogue journalist Allene Talmey visited Orwell in his “top-floor flat in London.” At the time, she noted, he was “comparatively unknown in this country” but she captured him perfectly: “George Orwell is a defender of freedom, even though most of the time he violently disagrees with the people beside whom he is fighting.”

Dear Friends,

Animal Farm, George Orwell’s masterful allegory of the Russian Revolution, was first published on 17 August 1945 and marks its eightieth anniversary this Sunday. To celebrate, we asked some special guests if they could remember their first encounters with the book. We start with Richard Blair, our founding patron, who recalls the gift which began his own journey reading his father’s works.

Elsewhere in this August newsletter we have news of two exciting opportunities to join the Foundation as a trustee, as well as an opportunity for early career journalists from our friends at the John Schofield Trust and our regular highlight from our founding sponsors The Political Quarterly. First, though, it’s back to the farm.

Read on!

The Orwell Foundation team

The Orwell Foundation is a charity dedicated to keeping Orwell’s legacy alive. Become a Friend or Patron from just £5 a month to support our work and access exclusive benefits, including a copy of our annual anthology, free events and priority booking.

Earlier this summer, we asked friends of the Foundation to reflect on their first encounters with Orwell’s miniature masterpiece…

Richard Blair: “Needless to say, I still have it.”

It would have been about the age of eleven or twelve that I felt compelled to read Animal Farm. I think the reason was that I had received a special leather-bound version that had been specially produced for me. Needless to say, I still have it. How did I find it? At the time I enjoyed it very much just as a book about farm animals rising up against authority. Did I get the underlying message? I sort of understood what was going on in the narrative. I certainly found it very easy to read and probably couldn't put it down.

I read a lot as a child, nothing deep you understand, but books of the time. I was going on to read Nineteen Eighty-Four, but wiser council suggested I should wait a year or two, so it wasn't until I went up to the senior school before reading a copy, probably by the age of thirteen or fourteen—which I found more difficult to understand.

Richard Blair is George Orwell’s adopted son and a founding trustee of The Orwell Foundation and The Orwell Youth Prize.

Donal Ryan: “It all made shockingly perfect sense”

I first read Animal Farm as part of our curriculum in secondary school. I couldn’t let on to be so moved in front of my classmates, but Boxer’s departure in the glue factory van and the stark, terrible sentence, ‘Boxer was never seen again’, caused in me a sadness so deep that it had an inoculating effect against future fictive traumas: every subsequent literary injustice would be measured against this one, and few evinced anything like the same feeling of desolate sorrow. The novel’s elegant allegory was explained and graphed skilfully by our teacher, Martin Slattery. It all made such shockingly perfect sense.

Orwell said in 1941 that ‘One of the easiest pastimes in the world is debunking democracy’. The debunkers still abound; Orwell’s incendiary riposte to the braying absolutists who would inscribe their commandments on the end wall of the big barn should be required reading in every place of education.

Donal Ryan was awarded the 2025 Orwell Prize for Fiction for his novel Heart, Be at Peace.

Jenny Kleeman: “Beasts of England, for me, will always be sung with Bennett’s lilting Yorkshire accent”

My first encounter with Animal Farm was on two white audio cassettes, read by Alan Bennett. I would have been seven or eight years old. I remember sitting on the carpet of my bedroom, making dolls' houses out of shoeboxes and glue, listening to it over and over and over. Beasts of England, for me, will always be sung with Bennett's lilting Yorkshire accent.

Jenny Kleeman was the winner of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Journalism.

Jeff Wasserstrom: “I now see it as having a second meaning — as a parable for colonial rule ending”

Reading Animal Farm as a teenager during the Cold War, I took for granted that the way to understand it was as a critique of the Russian Revolution, but thanks to two post-Cold War experiences I now see it as having a second meaning — as a parable for a period of colonial rule ending but a shift in the identities of those in charge of a place failing to fully liberate a populace. Reading Emma Larkin's lovely Finding George Orwell in Burma alerted me to the fact that some Burmese have long thought about the book in those terms, as a kind of sequel to Burmese Days set post-independence.

The second related experience I had was being in Hong Kong during 2014's Umbrella Movement, which was fueled in part by frustration that when the city ended its period as a British colony its top official became someone who seemed as beholden to rulers in Beijing as the pre-1997 ones had been to rulers in London. I saw a poster by student activists who were holding a book club meeting in a tent-filled occupy zone to discuss Animal Farm and I came across a banner that had the phrase some animals are more equal than others emblazoned on it.

Jeff Wasserstrom is a historian and specialist in China. His latest book is Vigil: The Struggle for Hong Kong.

Jo McMillan: “I took them out of the library, and read them quietly, in bed, under the covers.”

Not many British children are born into a communist family, but I was one of them. Books were part of the parental armoury, and Homage to Catalonia and Down and Out in Paris and London were on our shelves, though not Nineteen Eighty-Four – and certainly not Animal Farm.

In 1979, aged thirteen, I took them out of the library, and read them quietly, in bed, under the covers. The next summer, I was in the GDR – my mother invited by the Ministry of Education to teach at what is now the University of Potsdam.

One day, a young man took me aside and said, ‘You know, they don’t tell you the half of it...’ I had no idea what he meant. But by the end of that summer, when we’d seen the best of everything and been showered with presents and praise, I wondered if he’d meant: Yes, of course we’re all equal here. But some are more equal than others.

Jo McMillan's novel The Accidental Immigrants was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2025.

Sameer Padania: “How do those encountering Animal Farm now experience it?”

The first time I read something that made me feel viscerally what was meant by 'politics' and why it might actually matter was reading Animal Farm aged ten. My teacher meant for me to read it as an allegory about human politics, but something in it always chafed for me, that only crystallised when I read it to my own animal-obsessed children. How do those encountering Animal Farm now experience it, amid the ruinous impacts of the Anthropocene, as we acknowledge the 'more-than-human' world, animal sentience and the personhood of rivers? Might they see Orwell's animals not just as stand-ins for human political actors, but as other minds, other forms of consciousness or even politics? What kind of allegory might that be?

Sameer Padania is an independent media consultant and trustee of the Orwell Foundation.

Sandra Newman: “I would only read books about animals”

I got Animal Farm from the local library when I was ten or eleven because it was about animals, and at the time I would only read books about animals. The association of the working class with animals may have had a permanent influence on my political sympathies.

Sandra Newman's latest novel is a ‘companion novel’ to Nineteen Eighty-Four, told from the perspective of Julia.

Kim Darroch: “I had never read anything like it”

I first read Animal Farm when I was fourteen. It was a set book in English. It dazzled me. I had never read anything like it. It introduced me to allegory. It sparked a fascination with Russia that has endured to this day. It made me start to think about politics and about power. And it was by far the wisest book I had ever read. It sent me scurrying to the bookshelves to read more Orwell: inevitably, Nineteen Eighty-Four came next.

Eighty years on from publication, Animal Farm looks more profound, and more relevant, than ever. In the rise of populism, we can see all of those deceptions that Orwell skewered so accurately: the manipulation of language, the twisting of facts, the appeals to emotion, the personality cults, the drift to authoritarianism. Orwell understood, and could articulate, how power corrupts as well as any writer in history. And he could capture it in one of the greatest closing sentences in all literature. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Kim Darroch was the chair of judges for the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Join the Orwell Foundation as a trustee

The Orwell Foundation is looking for two new Trustees to help us write the next chapter in our mission. Having just launched an ambitious five-year strategic plan, we are looking for two exceptional individuals to join us at this pivotal moment:

🔹 Trustee Treasurer: help steer the financial future of a growing charity
🔹 Publishing Lead: help us find and celebrate the best new writing

This isn’t just governance: it is your chance ensure that Orwell's legacy continues to inspire the thinkers and writers of tomorrow. Find out more and apply on our website by the deadline of Monday 8th September.

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"This is the story of how George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, the mountain he had to climb to get it published, and the enormous personal tragedy which ran beneath."

In this original short film, DJ Taylor and Richard Blair unpack the extraordinary story behind the story, from the book’s rejection by several publishers to the adoption of George and Eileen’s son, Richard, and Eileen’s unexpected death soon after.

“Elevating stories of labour, place and local pride can help embed white working-class experiences into a multicultural nationalism that recognises difference while fostering a common good.”

Head to the Political Quarterly blog to read a new article by Sam Taylor Hill, John Denham and Tariq Modood on what the concept of ‘multicultural nationalism’ can offer debates about the British Labour Party and the white working class.

PQ is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, blog and events programme, PQ are the founding sponsors of The Orwell Prizes. You can also find them right here on Substack.

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John Schofield Trust mentorships now open

Calling all early career journalists! Applications are now open for the John Schofield Trust’s flagship mentorship scheme. Successful candidates will be paired with an experienced mentor from another media organisation, offering industry access and personal guidance when it can be of most help. Find out more on the John Schofield Trust website and apply by 12th September. UK and Ireland only.

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Emails from Orwell

"Orwell Daily is a lovely use of Substack, finding the best pieces from his archive and making them available online” - The Bluestocking

Orwell Daily is the new way to read one of the world’s greatest writers. We dig out highlights and hidden gems from George Orwell's journalism, letters and diaries and deliver them to your inbox “on the day” they were first published.

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Dear Friends,

We are delighted to announce that The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils will be awarded again in 2026, sponsored by Prospect magazine. The news was first revealed by Sir Clive Cowdery, Founder and Chairman of the Resolution Group and owner of Prospect, at the Orwell Prize ceremony on 25 June 2025. Read on to find out more about this important prize and why it is so valued by journalists and reporters across the UK.

"The way we live was central to George Orwell's work. From The Road to Wigan Pier to his closely-observed novels and essays, he tried to see Britain as it was, not as we might like it to be. He wanted - as we all must - this place, our place, to be better. So we are delighted to be working with Prospect on finding, and celebrating, reporting that reveals injustices, but above all is the basis for real change."

Professor Jean Seaton, Director, The Orwell Foundation

This year also saw us present the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize at our annual ceremony: the first time in the history of our awards that our youth and adult winners have shared the same stage. You can now read our Youth Prize winners’ fantastic work, from short fiction to poetry and personal essays, on our website. Look out for more insights from our young writers here on the newsletter over the summer.

From our unique feedback offer, to inspiring workshops with professional journalists and authors across the country, the Youth Prize aims to give every young person in the UK the opportunity to think and write creatively and critically, inspired by Orwell’s example. With demand for our work growing year on year, we need your help to reach the next generation of political writers, whatever their background. Find out more about how you can support our work as a volunteer, Friend or Patron.

The Orwell Foundation team

Just announced: The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils returns for 2026

With a reputation for finding and rewarding new talent, as well as celebrating high impact, long-term investigations which do not always get the attention they deserve, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils has been highly valued by journalists across the UK ever since it was first awarded in 2016. Previous winners, from BBC UK editor Ed Thomas to Financial Times columnist, reporter and associate editor Sarah O’Connor, continue to set the standard for social reporting in the UK.

Complemented by the existing Orwell Prize for Journalism, as well as the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, the prize reflects the Foundation’s commitment to championing brave, impactful journalism, in the best tradition of George Orwell. It also aligns with Prospect’s mission to support fearless reporting that shines a light on injustice and drives public understanding of complex issues.

“Prospect challenges the way we think about our world. And often that means exposing hard truths. Orwell’s legacy reminds us that social problems often arise through inaction, failed policy, or indifference. This prize celebrates journalism that refuses to look away.” - Sir Clive Cowdery

About the Prize

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils honours reporting that investigates the social fabric of the UK, covering topics such as poverty, housing, education, disability, welfare, and the impacts of government policy.

Its goal is to bring underreported stories to national attention, and to support journalists working on difficult, long-term issues that may not lead the bulletins but carry lasting impact. Open to work published across all platforms, text, video, audio, photojournalism and social media, the prize is judged by an independent panel of experts, with new judges to be announced later this year.

The winner receives £5,000 and will be published in Prospect. Two runners-up will receive £2,500 each, and their work may also be featured digitally.

Previous winners

An AI program gone rogue, a reporter caught up in civil war, a city freed from a tyrant’s grip… read the winners of this year’s Orwell Youth Prize

We received 1476 entries to this year’s Youth Prize from students aged 11 to 18, a truly impressive selection of poetry, short stories, journalism, essays and game design from the next generation of political writers.

For the first time this year, we presented the Orwell Youth Prize alongside our adult prizes. The awards for our winners and runners-up were handed out by George Orwell’s son and the Founding Patron of our charity, Richard Blair while this year’s judges were Manveen Rana, Gary Snapper and Anthony Anaxagourou.

“The winners include short stories beautifully – and with great economy – evoking the experiences of a Sudanese migrant in London; of a journalist reporting from the location of a civil war; and of a city released from a tyrant’s grip. There are also two finely crafted poems, both evoking the exhilaration and chaos of different types of fight for freedom. And finally there is a witty story brilliantly written in the form of a dialogue between an AI program and a freedom-seeker.”

Gary Snapper

You can read all the winners and runners up on our website. The winners will also feature in The Orwell Prize Anthology 2025, which we will be sending to our Friends and Patrons later this year. Thank you to everyone who entered, all our volunteers and judges, and congratulations to our winners.

Read the winners

Can we all belong?

In this month’s featured article, Sam Hill shares insights from The Political Quarterly Conversation 'Can We All Belong?' at the Orwell Festival earlier this year, with Sunder Katwala, Nicola Kelly and Tariq Modood.

“Central to this conversation was the question: whose responsibility is it to ensure a sense of belonging in Britain today?”

Political Quarterly is the leading academic journal for analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. In addition to their essential journal, lively and insightful blog and selected events on key issues in politics and public policy, PQ are the founding sponsors of The Orwell Prizes.

For more highlights from PQ, subscribe to their newsletter here on Substack.

Can we all belong?