In doing so, Larkin takes inspiration from Orwell himself. In her Finding George Orwell in Burma, “Emma Larkin” (a pseudonym meant to protect her Burmese sources) seeks to flesh out this meager but tantalizing biography: Why, she asks, did Orwell choose to write about Burma in his last days? And what was its influence on his life and his writings? Larkin, an American journalist who speaks fluent Burmese, spent a year tracing Orwell’s travels throughout Burma and collecting testimony from average Burmese laboring under a totalitarian regime.
The unfinished novella, “A Smoking Room Story” - he only managed to eke out four pages of synopsis - was similar in plot to Burmese Days : an imperial policeman’s experience in Burma. Burma also features in some of his most famous essays, including “Shooting An Elephant” and “A Hanging,” but it was not until he lay dying of tuberculosis at University College Hospital in London 16 years later that Orwell returned to Burma as a subject in his fiction. In 1934, he published his first novel, Burmese Days, the story of British policeman John Flory’s life in Burma. To the great disappointment of his family, he resigned from the police and devoted himself to writing, taking the pen name George Orwell.
H aving spent five years in Burma as part of the Indian Imperial Police, Eric Blair decided to pack up and return home.
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