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Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Dorian Lynsky

Dorian Lynsky Book

Dorian Lynsky

The Ministry of Truth: A biography of George Orwell’s 1984 (1984-Anniversary)

Dorian Lynskey has been writing about music, film, and politics for more than twenty years
for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, GQ, Q, Empire, Billboard, and The
New Statesman. His first book, 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs
(Ecco), was published in 2011.

1984 isn’t just a novel; it’s a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell’s final
work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes– Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink,
Newspeak, 2+2=5– that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the
election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller (‘Ministry of Alternative Facts’, anyone?). Its
influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid’s Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother).

The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey is the first book that fully examines the epochal and
a cultural event that is 1984 in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature
that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena
that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown
over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains
history.

  • Our other speakers: 
  • Isobel Galleymore
  • Michele Kirsch
  • Caroline Bobby
  • Jude Rogers
  • Jean McNeil
  • Niki Segnit
  • Niall McDevitt
  • Golnoosh Nour
  • Paul Scraton
  • Amir Dotan
  • Joel Golby
  • Sue Quinn
  • Emanuelle Dirix
  • Torcuil Crichton
  • Richard Boon
  • Robyn Travis
  • Anna Birch
  • Jo Neary
  • Elizabeth Macneal
  • Coco Khan
  • Louie Stowell
  • Nadia Valman
  • Joe Haddow
  • Crystal Mahey-Morgan
  • Georgina Pringle
  • Ryann Donnelly
  • Suzanne Noble
  • Nadia Shireen
  • Karen Liebenguth
  • Jamie Lee
  • Jeremy Reed
  • Gareth E. Rees
  • Jody Porter
  • Lauren Laverne
  • Sav Akyuz
  • Mazin Saleem
  • Lynn Enright
  • Alissa Timoshkina
  • Thurston Moore
  • Diana Henry
  • Andy Miller
  • Kit Caless
  • Dorian Lynsky
  • Johny Pitts
  • Zia Ahmed
  • Nikesh Shukla
  • Daniel Trilling
  • Lara Maiklem
  • Shiromi Pinto
  • Lee Jackson
  • Tom Huddleston
  • Alex Jackson
  • Sophie Parkin
  • Kerry Hudson
  • Claire Armitstead
  • Neil Denny
  • Francesca Cassini
  • Nigella Lawson
  • Will Wiles
  • Alice Lascelles
  • Anita Sethi
  • Caroline Rosie Dent
  • Jan Noble
  • Ken Worpole
  • Eloise Millar
  • Rachel McCormack
  • Francesca Segal
  • Sophie Parkin
  • Kirsten Norrie
  • Jenny Linford
  • John Osborne
  • Stephen Morris
  • Kiare Ladner
  • Patrice Lawrence
  • Nicola Kent
  • Suzi Feay
  • Xanthi Barker
  • Sophie Naufal
  • Olia Hercules
  • Wendy Jones
  • Rosie Price
  • Saima Mir
  • Nick Thorpe
  • Ed Miliband
  • Mariam Khan
  • Alan Johnson
  • Geoff Nicholson
  • Bruno Vincent
  • Natasha Carthew
  • Melanie McGrath
  • Robert Montgomery
  • Natasha Carthew
  • Sean Longden
  • Zawe Ashton
  • Ken Worpole
  • Felicity Cloake
  • Sali Hughes
  • Fernando Sdrigotti
  • Travis Elborourgh
  • Paul Burston
  • Dan O’Brien
  • Alex Clark
  • Ashley Hickson-Lovence
  • Debora Robertson
  • Michael Goldfarb
  • Anthony Cartwright
  • Jessica Martin
  • Ana Seferović
  • Julia Bueno
  • Briony Bax
  • Roger Robinson
  • Martin Rowson
  • Henny Beaumont
  • Magdalene Forés
  • Tim Wells
  • Sheila Dillon
  • Greta Bellamacina
  • Dina Nayeri
  • Joel Morris & Jason Hazeley
  • Joe Kerr
  • Pete Brown
  • Valerie Brandes
  • John Hegley
  • Serena Constance
  • Ben Moor
  • Kostya Tsolákis
  • Yasmin Khan
  • Catherine Steadman
  • Michael Bravo
  • Julius Beltrame
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