The Orwell Girl

When Ben Turner comes to Southwold in winter to escape a failed relationship, he encounters a mysterious and elusive stranger. This leads to the discovery of the town’s connections to George Orwell and a growing obsession with events which happened in the town long ago. As the days pass Ben finds himself drawn into a passionate engagement with Orwell’s life and writing, and a love affair which begins to echo Orwell’s own romantic entanglement with a local woman. A novel about a love affair - but also involving a passionate debate between a woman and a man about George Orwell, his treatment of women, his books, and his evolving politics. Ellis Sharp is a novelist who is ferociously brilliant - Iain Banks, utterly invigorating - China Mieville, targets the deadly absurdities and frustrations of our civilisation - Ken MacLeod, his books are jam-packed with wondrous things - Lee Rourke, Ellis Sharp demands that we set aside a whole set of expectations, not only about realism, but also about political fiction and English literature - Mark Fisher, New Statesman, You can trust Ellis Sharp because beneath the zaniness, at the level of the sentence, he is very good indeed - Guardian.