A homage to Catalonia

I picked this book up at the tip, I wish I'd read it years ago. I understand how Orwell felt to believe in movements, believe in the potential for change, believe in revolution and see all that potential for positive change, for personal and social emancipation wasted or subverted or just stolen, worse given away. Is that the nature of revolutions? It would appear it is, as they say 'the shit always rises to the top'. It's easy to become cynical or even nihilistic, I know. Written as it is, reading George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' feels like you're sat with Orwell as he reminisces his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, on the Aragon Line and in Barcelona. In my head Orwell was given a sort of Mr Chumbly Warner voice, which worked for me as he first tells of Anarchist (I like the sound of them) equality and of the liberation to be found in it; the dull drudgery and random dangers of life on the front line; of the May riots and the beginning of the end; of his shooting and subsequent convalescence; and finally of political skulduggery, communist treachery, life as a fugitive and of escaping Spain. Quite an adventure and all undertaken in that totally British public school manner of the period, and with all the associated sensibilities. It's clear from reading George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' that his experiences in the Spanish Civil War heavily coloured the imagery and subjects of his subsequent books 'Animal Farm' and '1984'; which both exhibit echoes of his experiences from that time. It's an interesting read, I'd recommend it.