Looking for wander and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell.
As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own...
And when she uncovers his forgotten wife, it's a revelation. Elleen O'Shaughnessy's literary brilliance shaped Orwell's work and her practical nous saved his life. But why - and how - was she written our of the story?
Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder rocreates the Orwells marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WWII in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell's private life she is led to question what it takes to be a writer - and what it is to be a wife.
Compelling and utterly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the twentieth century, It is a book that speaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past.