Born in India in 1903 George Orwell moved to England with his family in 1907. He was educated at Eton and joined the Indian Imperial Police, serving five years in Burma before returning to Europe. The period of poverty that followed inspired DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON (1933). In 1937 he published THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER. His political convictions led him to fight for the Republicans in Spain and to write HOMAGE TO CATALONIA. In 1945 ANIMAL FARM was published. Orwell died of TB in 1950.