Solnit recounts the difficult final years of Orwell’s life. While his attitude remained sunny, his health was deteriorating; his tuberculosis worsened during and after the war. He and his wife, Eileen Blair, adopted a son in 1944, though Eileen died less than a year after the adoption. Orwell raised his son alone, with help from nannies and his sister, until his own death in 1950. Solnit notes that during all of this, Orwell wrote prodigiously, turning out essay after essay on various topics. In particular, she mentions the many essays on what might be considered lighthearted topics, such as food and the joys of junk shops. However, he also produced some of his most well-known work, such as the novel Animal Farm (1945) and the essay “Politics and the English Language” (1946).

During this time, Orwell returned to the cottage in Wallington—the one to which Solnit journeys at the beginning of the book. He needed to clear out all his belongings before moving to Jura, an island off the coast of Scotland where Orwell had always wanted to live. Orwell’s experience in Jura was both idyllic and difficult; it was remote, and the weather was harsh. Still, he wanted “out of London literary life and back into literary productivity” (247), and he wanted his son to experience a rural upbringing.