Talk:Eileen Blair

Untitled

just to let you know south shields isn't in county durham, its just a bit further north in South Tyneside... dont know how to change so someone else can —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.195.88.92 (talk) 12:01, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

"It is believed by scholars that Eileen had a large influence on Orwell's writing." (E.g. Animal Farm, 1984) -- Can anybody provide any cites for this assertion?

I found some with Google, but that can be gossip... btw I'd love to read the poem, can someone copy it to here? Alensha 17:33, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I hope this helps. It's an excerpt from Eileen's entry in my Alan Myers Literary Guide to North East England.

'Eileen appears as Rosemary Waterlow in Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Curiously enough Orwell mentions the unemployed of Middlesbrough three times in the first chapter, though he had never been to the town. Perhaps he had read Aldous Huxley (q.v.) on the topic.

During World War II, Eileen worked with the novelist Lettice Cooper at the Ministry of Food, preparing recipes and scripts for ‘The Kitchen Front’, a regular morning broadcast. The character of Ann in Lettice Cooper’s 1947 novel Black Bethlehem is clearly based on Eileen. Bernard Crick in his biography of Orwell, remarks that many features of the Ministry of Truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four owed as much to her experiences in the Ministry of Food as to Orwell’s at the BBC. In this connection it is intriguing to note that a few years ago, the Sunderland Echo published three poems written by Eileen in 1934 for the fiftieth anniversary of Sunderland High School. 

These, ’Death’, ’Birth’ and ’Phoenix’ are collectively entitled END OF THE CENTURY 1984. Some of the lines even hint at ideas included in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is quite possible that Orwell was aware of Eileen’s poems, though the pair did not meet until the following year. Scholars have hitherto considered that 1984 was simply the publication year, 1948, reversed (though that was not the book’s original title) but Eileen’s work has fuelled fresh academic controversy.'

After Eileen's death in Newcastle, Orwell attended the funeral in St Andrew's cemetery (and paid for the headstone as 'Eric Blair'). Curiously enough, while there he was standing a stone's throw from Sanderson Road, Jesmond (plaque), where Yevgeni Zamyatin had lived in 1916-17. Zamyatin's WE owes something to his time in England, and of course is considered a strong influence on Orwell's 1984. Emmet 23. 52 28.5.05

Notes: "paid for the headstone as 'Eric Blair'". Well, his name was Eric Blair -- he never legally changed it to George Orwell. And here are a couple of links to Yevgeni Zamyatin and his novel We. -- Writtenonsand 04:12, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Name

The subject's married name, and thus her name at death, was Eileen Blair. That is a strong reason to have the article titled Eileen Blair and the lead start "Eileen Maud Blair (née O'Shaughnessy)...".

I presume sticking to O'Shaughnessy is a deliberate decision and so I am reluctant to change it without consensus, but I can see no discussion here or anywhere else about it. Eileen Blair is a redirect. Although her husband is usually referred to by his pen-name, it still leads to inconsistencies when writing things like "O'Shaugnessy and Orwell [did this or that together]" instead of the more natural "the Blairs".

I'm inclined to make changes to make the naming more consistent, probably using the name Blair more than Orwell. What do other editors think? Si Trew (talk) 18:31, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

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Death

So she was "in poor health", had her uterus removed and died in anesthesia. What's the full picture here? Why was she in poor health, why did she have her uterus removed? Thanks, Maikel (talk) 17:49, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree that the full picture is missing here. This section is quite confusing and appears to be wrong. It does appear that Eileen died under anesthesia while having an operation on her uterus, but it appears the operation was to possibly just remove uterine tumors instead of removing the whole uterus itself. The statement that "she was in poor health" also appears to be possibly wrong as well. In Thomas E. Ricks Churchill & Orwell: The Fight For Freedom he writes that she was able to send a letter "reassuring him that the hospital room was pleasant, with a view of a garden." Ricks' states that Orwell writes that her death was unexpected. Ricks' book would be a good place to start for anyone who wants to update this section (probably me). --CurryMi40 (talk) 20:13, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

Any update, @Maikel and CurryMi40? Cheers CapnZapp (talk) 22:02, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

'Medical examinations, organised by Gwen O'Shaughnessy [Eileen's sister-in-law, who was a doctor], revealed the cause of Eileen's ill health to be tumours on her uterus. She was advised to have an immediate hysterectomy... A letter of 21 March sets out the immediate problems of her health. Hearing of her being taken ill when she was in London, Orwell's Tribune colleagues had rallied round with offers of help, even to the extent of summoning him back from the Continent. The offers were declined. What Eileen did want was Orwell's agreement that she should undergo expensive surgery and recuperation (the operation itself would cost 40 guineas). Ivor Brown at The Observer, to whom the question of getting in touch with Orwell was referred, suggested sending a message via Cable & Wireless, but in the end Eileen declined. The operation must go ahead as soon as possible. "Obviously I can't just go on having a tumour, or rather several rapidly growing tumours." ...The operation, to be carried out at the Fernwood House Hospital, Newcastle, was set for 29 March. Shortly beforehand, Eileen began a letter to her husband, to be completed after it was over, she explained, and got off quickly... The anaesthetic took effect and she was borne off into the operating theatre. Shortly afterwards, six months short of her fortieth birthday, she was dead.' DJ Taylor, Orwell: The Life, Chatto & Windus, London 2003 (Vintage paperback, London 2004, ISBN 978-0-099-28346-1), pp.344-346. Khamba Tendal (talk) 18:04, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Marriage section

In the hands of a great writer maybe we could switch effortlessly between "Blair" and Orwell, but now it's all confused. CapnZapp (talk) 21:59, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

Laurence

It seems a pity that Eileen's brother, Mr (not Dr -- British surgeons are Mr) Laurence O'Shaughnessy, FRCS, is marked down in the article as 'one of Nature's Fascists', an obviously silly, offhand, teasing remark by Eileen. Laurence was a noted, pioneering Harley Street heart / thoracic surgeon who married a woman doctor -- therefore not subscribing to the Fascist idea that a woman's place was in the kitchen and the nursery -- and volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of war, having previously served in the Territorial RAMC with the rank of captain. He was promoted major. He was killed in a German air attack on his Casualty Clearing Station during the retreat to Dunkirk. In other words he died fighting Fascism. Eileen was deeply jarred by his loss, and she would probably not want him to be remembered by that one silly remark of hers.

http://www.ghgraham.org/text/laurenceoshaughnessy1901_obit.html

https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:376589/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E004406%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier

Khamba Tendal (talk) 18:30, 19 October 2023 (UTC)