Barnhill, the new novel by Isle of Luing author Norman Bissell, brings to life George Orwell’s desperate struggle on the Isle of Jura to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four before his health failed. Written by Orwell at Barnhill, a remote farmhouse on Jura, Nineteen Eighty-Four was published seventy years ago in June 1949 but his terrifying vision of a future ruled by a surveillance state has never been more relevant. 

Barnhill tells the dramatic story of how Orwell’s dystopian warning to the world may have cost him his life. Deeply researched, his novel explores the crucial last six years of Orwell’s life in London, Paris and Jura and brings a Scottish perspective to the growing body of work that reimagines the author whose real name was Eric Blair. It reveals the private man behind the celebrated public figure – the tragic death of his wife, his devotion to his baby son, his turbulent love life and his fear of assassination at the hands of Stalinist agents. Orwell was passionate in his defence of truth and was consumed by the need to alert us to what could happen if we do not stand up against those who lie and spy on us to maintain their power.

‘I live in sight of Jura and became fascinated by the contrast between this beautiful place where Orwell lived and the horrors he depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four. I wanted to bring to life the man, his family and friends and to tell the moving human story of how he sacrificed his own future for the greater good.’ Norman Bissell

‘A rich, absorbing narrative that draws a convincing picture of the life of a great writer.’ Leela Soma  

‘Through a literary lens, Bissell does for Orwell what Johnny Depp did for J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland. He brings the man most vibrantly alive.’  Alastair McIntosh

Published by Luath Press, hardback, brand new, 256 pages. Signed and dedicated copies by the author are available now.

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