Alan Johnson: ‘I wish I’d put Orwell on the national curriculum’
Sep 19, 2012, 11:09 AM
Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson recalls the seminal moment that began a lifelong passion for the writer George Orwell. Speaking to Matthew Parris for Great Lives, Johnson recalls the teacher who packed him off to the King’s Road at age fourteen to buy four copies of any book he liked – he chose Orwell’s 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'. This was the start of Johnson's political awakening and Orwell's work has shaped his views ever since.