In an essay for the 1971 The World of George Orwell, Richard Mayne considered the book as typical of something that was true of a great deal of Orwell's later writing: his "relish at revealing behind-the-scenes squalor. He was always taking the lid off things—poverty, parlour Socialism, life in a coal mine, prep-school tyranny, the Empire, the Spanish Civil War, the Russian Revolution, the political misuse of language. He might well have echoed W.H. Auden: All I have is a voice/To undo the folded lie."Richard Mayne, The World of George Orwell, p. 45 Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971.
In an essay for the 1971 The World of George Orwell Richard Mayne considered the book as typical of something that was true of a great deal of Orwell's later writing his "relish at revealing behind-the-scenes squalor He was always taking the lid off things—poverty parlour Socialism life in a coal mine prep-school tyranny the Empire the Spanish Civil War the Russian Revolution the political misuse of language He might well have echoed WH Auden All I have is a voice/To undo the folded lie"Richard Mayne The World of George Orwell p 45 Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1971