Journalism took a heavy toll on Orwell in the first months of 1946.
Despite this
unremitting pressure, he
produced a major
sequence of
articles on "The
Intellectual Revolt," and wrote one of his finest short essays, "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad." He wrote two radio plays for the BBC, and a pamphlet for the British Council, all of which are printed here for the first time. Orwell renewed contact with Yvonne Davet, he corresponded with Ihor Szewczenko, he tried to get Victor Serge's memoirs published in English, and he attempted to expose Soviet responsibility for the massacre of the Poles by arranging for a translation of Joseph Czapski's
Souvenirs de Starobielsk to be published.
