Orwell was a good dad.
From The New Yorker and the Times of London:
Most Orwell readers know that he and Eileen adopted a son, Richard. And that’s about all they know of Richard Blair (George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Blair), who has kept his silence throughout his life—until now.
So who is Orwell’s son? A retired engineer, who lives in a picturesque village in Warwickshire, and who has entirely happy memories of having spent his first six years in the company of the author of “Homage to Catalonia” and “Animal Farm.” Orwell, by his son’s account, was a wonderful father. He gave Richard his devoted if rather rugged attention, and a degree of freedom that readers of contemporary parenting books would consider actionable. A small boy’s life with the great and dying writer was an endless adventure in the wonders and rigors of the natural world around their country house, even if most of the shared experiences Richard still remembers were of near-disasters. One fishing expedition to a shepherd’s hut on the remote part of Jura ended in a storm, with Orwell, Richard, and his three cousins nearly drowning in the Gulf of Corryvreckan. Orwell, struggling in the whirlpool that had capsized their boat, noticed a seal watching them and remarked, “Curious thing about seals, very inquisitive creatures.”
