Set on the streets of Paris and London as George Orwell wanders, a poor and lonely would-be journalist. It’s clear Orwell took many of his ideas on the subjugation of the masses by controlling powers from the experiences he saw amongst the homeless. Interesting and still provocative as he questions how society treats its poverty-stricken – and that only fortune creates the divide between rich and poor.

An English journalist joins an anti-Fascist fighting unit during the Spanish Civil War. The despair, waste and horrors of trench warfare in the 1930s, and the betrayal and espionage of a country ripped in two, are described with historical detail by a writer who keeps his writing brief and sharp.