George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Motihari in Bengal, India and later studied at Eton College for four years. He was an assistant superintendent with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He left that position after five years and moved to Paris, where he wrote his first two books: Burmese Days and Down and Out in Paris and London. He then moved to Spain to write but decided to join the United Workers Marxist Party Militia. After being decidedly opposed to communism, he served in the British Home Guard and with the Indian Service of the BBC during World War II. After the war, he wrote for the Observer and was literary editor for the Tribune. His best known works are Animal Farm and 1984. His other works include A Clergyman's Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, and Coming Up for Air. He died on January 21, 1950 at the age of 46.
Chris Mould has illustrated the gamut from picture books and young fiction, to theatre posters and satirical cartoon. As well as writing his own fiction and illustrating Ted Hughes' The Iron Man to much critical success, he has teamed up with author Matt Haig for the bestselling A Boy Called Christmas, A Girl Who Saved Christmas, Father Christmas and Me and The Truth Pixie. He lives in Yorkshire with his wife, has two grown-up daughters, and when he's not drawing and writing, you'll find him... actually, he's never not drawing or writing.
