A day all about George

Whenever an historical figure is associated with a place, things can get out of hand. Famous figures attract attention and it is only normal that an influx of visitors keen on seeing birthplaces, artefacts and remains will lead to attempts at exploiting the situation for financial gain.

I haven't been in years, but the last time I was in Stratford-upon-Avon there was a certain Disney-like atmosphere to the ubiquitous references to Shakespeare, and it would not surprise me if you were to find a ‘Hamlet sandwich' in a local pub called the ‘Bard's Head', which may look like it was opened in the 17th century but which in fact was a local greengrocers only a few years ago.

Cashing in is only human. However, too much of it and you run the risk of trivialising such historical links. So, it is good to see that so far in Barcelona we have been spared the ‘Ye Orwell Arms' authentic English pub or tours of the Corte Inglés to show us where Orwell used to buy his Playstation games. Clearly, Orwell is not a figure of the stature of Shakespeare or George Washington, for example, but he was the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, and crucially for us, Homage to Catalonia. What's more, for your average person, Orwell almost single-handedly represents the phenomenon of idealistic foreign fighters making the trip to Spain in the 1930s to defend freedom and democracy in the face of Fascist aggression in a brutal war that was a precursor to the showdown with Hitler's Nazis.

In this sense, Orwell is very important to Catalonia and it's good to see he has his own commemoration, Orwell Day, on June 8. As you can see from our articles on pages 42 and 43, Orwell Day involves the CCCB and Pen Català, and includes an historical walking tour as well as a guest talk from New Yorker journalist and writer, George Packer.

Not too much and not too little, with serious yet enjoyable commemorative activities accessible to anyone with a genuine interest in the author and his relationship to the city. On the one hand, the walking tour retraces Orwell's steps in the city he describes in Homage to Catalonia, a place divided by political strife, where rival groups snipe at each other from recognisable landmarks. As a writer and a thinker, it is also apt that Orwell Day be celebrated with a presentation on his journalism from a recognised staff writer of a prestigious international publication like the New Yorker. Orwell Day is proof that not everything has to be done wearing a foam finger.