Origin Story Origin Story

Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey.
In this opening two-parter Dorian bows to the inevitable and tells the story of the subject of his book, The Ministry of Truth. When George Orwell died on 21 January 1950, at the age of 46, the phenomenal success of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four made it international news. The obituaries hailed him as a beacon of decency, sanity and wisdom during the darkest years of the twentieth century — “the wintry conscience of a generation” in VS Pritchett’s ringing phrase. To this day, his moral authority is claimed by people across the political spectrum. Behind the myth, Orwell was a complicated man, full of flaws and contradictions. His road to success was long, painful and ridiculously eventful.
In part one, Dorian explains how Eric Blair became George Orwell, from Eton to Burma to Paris to Wigan. We then follow Orwell to the Spanish Civil War, where he is shot by fascists and hounded by Stalinists, and finally to Blitz-torn London. It’s the story of a man working out who he is, as a writer and a moral agent, in a world tumbling towards catastrophe. How did Orwell become a socialist? Why did he wind up the other socialists? Why was Spain the great turning point in his life? Are his early novels any good? And was his wife Eileen the queen of deadpan one-liners? All this and more in the return of Origin Story.

• Pre-order the forthcoming Origin Stories books on Centrism, Fascism and Conspiracy Theory and get 20% off using the special discount code revealed in the podcast. 
• Buy The Ministry of Truth through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Origin Story by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.
• Support Origin Story on Patreon

Reading list

Audrey Coppard and Bernard Crick (eds.) — Orwell Remembered (1984)
Bernard Crick – George Orwell: A Life (1982)
Peter Davison (ed.) — The Complete Works of George Orwell (1997-2002)
Peter Davison (ed.) — The Lost Orwell (2006)
Miriam Gross (ed.) — The World of George Orwell (1971)
Dorian Lynskey — The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (2019
Jeffrey Meyers (ed.) — George Orwell: The Critical Heritage (1975)
John Rodden — George Orwell: The Politics of Literary Reputation (1989)
William Steinhoff — George Orwell and the Origins of 1984 (1975)
DJ Taylor – Orwell: The Life (2003)
DJ Taylor – Orwell: The New Life (2023)
Sylvia Topp – Eileen: The Making of George Orwell (2020)

Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Audio production by Simon Williams. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
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Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey.

In part two of George Orwell, Dorian picks up the story in 1941, with Orwell taking a job at the BBC. The war grinds on, and so does George, until his anti-Stalinist fairy tale Animal Farm changes everything. We’re on the road to Nineteen Eighty-Four but it is littered with obstacles: grief, madness, bombs, tuberculosis. After the war, Orwell is writing his finest essays but his life is mayhem so he escapes to the Scottish island of Jura with his baby son to write the novel that, little does he know, will make him a legend.

It's the story of a writer reaching the height of his powers while everything around him seems to be falling to bits. How did a sick man on a lonely island write perhaps the most influential novel of the twentieth century? Why is his strange masterpiece so widely misunderstood? What were Orwell’s blindspots? Would he have been a good hang? And are taking the right lessons from his life and work? All this, plus Nye Bevan, HG Wells, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley and the atomic bomb.

• Pre-order the forthcoming Origin Stories books on Centrism, Fascism and Conspiracy Theory and get 20% off using the special discount code revealed in the podcast.

• Buy The Ministry of Truth through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Origin Story by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

Image: Peter Cushing (Winston Smith) with Yvonne Mitchell (Julia) and André Morrell (O’Brien) in the 1954 BBC production of George Orwell’s 1984. (Getty)

Reading list

Audrey Coppard and Bernard Crick (eds.) — Orwell Remembered (1984)
Bernard Crick – George Orwell: A Life (1982)
Peter Davison (ed.) — The Complete Works of George Orwell (1997-2002)
Peter Davison (ed.) — The Lost Orwell (2006)
Miriam Gross (ed.) — The World of George Orwell (1971)
Dorian Lynskey — The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (2019
Jeffrey Meyers (ed.) — George Orwell: The Critical Heritage (1975)
John Rodden — George Orwell: The Politics of Literary Reputation (1989)
William Steinhoff — George Orwell and the Origins of 1984 (1975)
DJ Taylor – Orwell: The Life (2003)
DJ Taylor – Orwell: The New Life (2023)
Sylvia Topp – Eileen: The Making of George Orwell (2020)

Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Audio production by Simon Williams. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production

Origin Story often covers people who have taken strange and erratic political journeys, from Winston Churchill to Jordan Peterson. But what about the evolutions that have made Ian and Dorian the well-rounded podcasters you know and love/tolerate today? What are their personal political origin stories? Ian retraces his youthful path from Christianity to Marxism to liberalism, while Dorian talks about making sense of his place on the left over the years. Are identities like socialist, liberal or centrist really firm categories or something more fluid and contested? Does it all ultimately come down to individuals trying to make sense of the world? It’s a story about what we believe, why we believe it and the importance of changing your mind.

Many thanks to everyone who came to the Origin Story Live season curtain-raiser in London last night – and huge apologies to everyone who signed up to watch the Zoom livestream and were disappointed. We are so sorry but the WiFi fell down on us, so with great regret we had to pull it. Thanks so much for your understanding.

Fear not. We captured audio and video and here’s the audio version, just for our esteemed subscribers. Please enjoy Dorian and Ian discovering the conspiracist roots of that great work of political exegesis, The Plot by Nadine Dorries. Spoiler: It’s even madder than you think. And in Part Two, more literary criticism as Ian and Dorian explore the sophisticated themes and thesis of Ten Years To Save The West, Liz Truss’s equally trenchant contribution to the world of ideas. Spoiler: Also mad. Oh and there’s audience questions too.

We hope you enjoy it. The full video will be arriving tomorrow, again just for supporters. Plus, hold tight for two more developments in Origin Story world…

Season Five starts next Weds 15 May.

There’s another London live show coming in the next few months.

More news on both VERY soon.

Thanks for all your support and hold tight for our new season…

THE ORIGIN STORY TEAM

We’ve covered ideas, phrases, people and historical events. Now Origin Story profiles its first building: Number 10 Downing Street. 
Following Dorian’s bonus episode about the birth of end of the world fiction, based on his new book Everything Must Go, Ian goes deep on a topic from his bestselling book How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn’t. He explains how a house built on marshland by a 17th century scoundrel gradually became the prime minister’s official residence, and how its cramped, chaotic floorplan still influences how vital decisions are made. Why does tradition trump efficient governance? How do wily advisers exploit the layout to increase their influence over the PM? Is the door more important than the rest of the house put together? And is it finally time to say goodbye to Number 10?
Support Origin Story on Patreon for exclusive benefits www.Patreon.com/originstorypod 
Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Audio production by Simon Williams. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
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• Join Ian and Dorian for Origin Story Live in London on Tue 7 May. They’ll be looking at how the Conservative Party got addicted to conspiracy theory, and more.
This time: The Illuminati were a group of Enlightenment idealists who existed for just a few years in 1780s Bavaria. Or were they? The Illuminati have since been blamed for everything from the French Revolution to communism to 9/11. How did a powerless club of intellectuals become reimagined as the secret rulers of the world? And how did the myth of the Illuminati become the template for every megaconspiracy theory about plots to put humanity under the heel of a one-world government?
Dorian and Ian unravel this amazing yarn, which takes in America’s Founding Fathers, British fascists, the Knights Templar, David Icke, Jay-Z and the Playboy letters page. The truth is in here.
Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices