Anna Funder's revelatory biography of George Orwell's forgotten first wife continues. It's 1936 and one of the twentieth century's great writers is in Barcelona preparing to take up arms in the struggle against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Meanwhile, there is an extraordinary revelation. Fenella Woolgar reads.

The award-winning writer, Anna Funder, best known for Stasiland and All that I Am, has immersed herself in the scholarship on George Orwell to write Wifedom. Here Funder shines a light on Eileen, Orwell's extraordinary wife. Using newly discovered letters written by Eileen, Funder paints an intimate portrait of a forgotten woman, and one of the twentieth century's most significant literary marriages. She also illuminates the social and cultural values that kept Eileen in the shadows, and continue to shape how the world regards the unsung work of wives everywhere.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard Show less