Norfolk and Orwell

Once again I find it necessary to apologize for failing to post any updates to Beyond 1984 since last July. The reason for my neglect is due to my recent decision to accept the opportunity of completing my undergraduate studies at the University of East Anglia. Once I received confirmation from UEA that my application was successful, I had very little time to prepare for the move. Logistically, attending UEA imposed several complications, not least of which was finding somewhere to live during term-time. That is now resolved, and I am settling down to life in Norfolk, and feel relaxed enough to resume blog activity.

There are several reasons why the move to Norwich should prove beneficial to my writing. Obviously, from a writer’s perspective, just being at UEA is a major plus point. Writers are well entrenched here, UEA having been the first UK university to introduce Creative Writing as a subject. The historical aspect is already beginning to rub off, and I really feel for the first time that I can legitimately refer to myself a writer. Nobody bats an eyelid when you say that here. You get the feeling that writers are well respected, and that is bound to have an effect. Particularly as the usual response to telling someone that you are a writer is often an embarrassed smirk.

Norfolk, and particularly Norwich, has a long and proud literary history, and has this year been given the honour of becoming England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. Literary events take place regularly throughout the year, sponsored by both the university, and by the Writers’ Centre Norwich, one of the country’s leading literary development agencies.

Being a devout Orwellian, Norfolk also has the attraction for me of being the home of Eric Blair (Orwell’s real name) in the period following his return from colonial service in Burma and prior to his moving to London to seek his fortune as a writer. His parents retired to the coastal village of Southwold just thirty-four miles from Norwich. Their old house is still on the town’s High Street, and Orwell, apparently, had a very happy life there before embarking upon his literary career. He was almost certainly writing on most, if not all, days while in Southwold, as it is well documented that family friends and neighbours commented upon the noise made by his typewriter.

UEA’s Creative Writing MA course has several alumni celebrity writers, Ian McKewan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Rose Tremain to name just three. It’s an impressive list. I hope I can stay with it.