A commemorative blue plaque honouring the South Shields-born writer and wife of George Orwell has been unveiled in Sunderland.
Poet and journalist Eileen O’Shaughnessy was an Oxford scholar who went on to marry the renowned author, whose real name was Eric Blair. Orwell is best known for groundbreaking works such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. Born in 1905, Eileen met Orwell in 1935 before the couple married a year later in Hertfordshire.
Eileen was a writer in her own right, and is thought to have been a strong influence on Orwell’s writing style, particularly in his book Animal Farm, which Eileen helped him plan. And what people may not be aware of, is that Eileen had been a pupil at Sunderland Church High School.
