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Having approached the end of Memoirs of a Geisha, I restocked on BBC Big Read books. Six this time (It’s hard to refuse a “3 for 2″ offer on such good books): Holes; Animal Farm; The Grapes of Wrath; 1984; The Great Gatsby; To Kill a Mocking Bird.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed browsing this excellent selection of books, and have become confident enough to trust that all the books in the list will be good, so this time my selection has broadened a little - I want to expose myself to some other books, and revisit some classics I read during my English GCSE’s.

Animal Farm I managed to read in a day. I’ve not done that for years, but I’d forgotten how short a book this is. 94 pages or so. The book itself has lost none of it’s impact, relevance (Mugabe and Napolean beg to be compared at the moment), or enjoyment. It’s quite simply one of the best books to have come out of the 20th century.

When I read the book at school, it was a simple reproduction of Orwell’s tale. The copy I purchased contained a detailed introduction and analysis of the book. Following the story itself, Orwell’s original introduction is included, plus the introduction he wrote for the Ukranian translation (handed out to the many displaced Ukranians after the war).

Whilst Orwell’s introduction was rightly dropped from the original imprint, I was quite intrigued to realise that you could potentially replace “USSR” and “Russia” with “USA” and “America” from much of his writing, especially with this “war on terrorism” and the crack down on liberties and seeming intolerance of critical viewpoints that has ensued in the last two years. Orwell struggled to get Animal Farm published, primarily because no publisher wanted to anger Russia.

Indeed, as I was listening to “PM” on Radio 4 yesterday, driving back from Hampshire, a letter was read out which argued we should “rally behind the flag” and stop “tearing Britain to pieces”, with regard criticism of the government. I take the opposite view. It is exactly at moments like this - where those elected to represent us are going against our intentions and desires - that we should be most critical. That is what democracy is all about

Animal Farm has lost absolutely none of it’s relevance in the 59 years since it was written. It is still one of the most important books written in the 20th century, and it’s arguments and principles - including Orwells introduction - demand to be reread. If you’ve never read this book, or haven’t re-read it for a few years, now would be an excellent time to revisit it.

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