An Orwellian Childhood

"What would it have been like to be brought up by George Orwell? Pretty grim, you might think. But you would be wrong" — Oxford Literary Festival: George Orwell's son speaks for the first time about his father. An excerpt:

Richard remembers these years on the island as a time of almost unbroken happiness. Looking back, what particularly gratifies him is the freedom he was given there. He fished from a dinghy for mackerel and coley, and wandered at will, wearing stout farm boots to protect him from adders. He remembers seeing his father stamp on an adder's head and slit its body open with a knife in an unusual fit of savagery.

[link via Arts & Letters Daily]