Striking the balance between comical and pessimistic, this Orwellian novel follows George Bowling as he foresees the horrors of World War Two and attempts to escape the threat of violence and old age by retreating to his childhood town.

First published in 1939, Coming Up for Air is a novel by George Orwell examining how commercialism and capitalism are destroying the English countryside and opening the way for new threats. When an insurance salesman, George Bowling, wins money on a horserace, he decides to escape his disillusioned London life and attempt to relive his innocent childhood. He returns to his small town of birth in rural England and hides from the reality of the impending war.

“Coming Up for Air helps us to see that disillusionment with the present, through nostalgia, can lead only to further delusion. Orwell’s work, written in the midst of the rise of fascism and economic depression, can help us to see the importance of rationalism in opposition to idealism. As we face more problems at home and abroad, this message remains significant as ever, and the consequences of our failure to live up to it just as colossal.” – Patrick Maxwell, The London Magazine.