'Truly wonderful... Anna Funder has written another brilliant human portrait.' - Claire Tomalin
A BLAZING GENRE-BENDING MASTERPIECE FROM ONE OF THE MOST INVENTIVE WRITERS OF OUR TIMELooking
for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero
George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self she tries to remember her own . . .
When she uncovers his forgotten wife it's a revelation. Eileen O'Shaughnessy's literary
brilliance shaped Orwell's work and her practical nous saved his life. But why - and how - was
she written out of the story?Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend
Funder recreates the Orwells' marriage through the Spanish Civil War and WW II in London. As
she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell's private life she is led to question what it takes
to be a writer - and what it is to be a wife. Compelling and utterly original Wifedom speaks
to the unsung work of women everywhere today while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of
one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century. It is a book that speaks to
our present moment as much as it illuminates the past. 'Simply a masterpiece. Here Anna
Funder not only re-makes the art of biography she resurrects a woman in full. And this in a
narrative that grips the reader and unfolds through some of the most consequential moments -
historical and cultural - of the twentieth century.' Geraldine Brooks winner of the Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction
