After 70 yrs, British Council apologises to George Orwell
London: The British Council Thursday publicly apologised to George Orwell after rejecting an “excellent” essay of his 70 years ago. Orwell, born in British India and perhaps one the UK’s greatest political writer of the 20th Century and the author of 1984 and Animal Farm wrote the piece, entitled British Cookery, in 1946.
But the council, which promotes British relations with other countries, told Orwell it would be “unwise to publish it for the continental reader”.
The editor acknowledges it is an “excellent” essay, but “with one or two minor criticisms” — including that Orwell’s recipe for orange marmalade contained “too much sugar and water”.
In the essay, Orwell describes the British diet as “a simple, rather heavy, perhaps slightly barbarous diet” and where “hot drinks are acceptable at most hours of the day”.
Alasdair Donaldson, British Council senior policy analyst, said: “It seems that the organisation in those days was somewhat po- faced and risk- averse, and was anxious to avoid producing an essay about food ( even one which mentions the disastrous effects of wartime rationing) in the aftermath of the hungry winter of 1945.”
He said: “Over 70 years later, the British Council
◗ The editor acknowledges his essay, British Cookery, is ‘ excellent’, but ‘ with one or two minor criticisms’, including that Orwell’s recipe for orange marma- lade contained ‘ too much sugar and water’
is delighted to make amends for its slight on perhaps the UK’s greatest political writer of the 20th Century, by re- producing the original essay in full — along with the unfortunate rejection letter.” According to Orwell’s essay, published on the website of the British Council, cheap restaurants in Britain are almost invariably bad, while in expensive restaurants the cookery is almost always French, or imitation French.
“In the kind of food eaten, and even in the hours at which meals are taken and the names by which they are called, there is a definite cultural division between the upperclass minority and the big mass who have preserved the habits of their ancestors,” he wrote.