The Lives of Others

Australian writer Anna Funder's latest book, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, shines the spotlight on Eileen O'Shaughnessy, celebrated writer George Orwell's first wife.

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Eileen was a writer herself and an Oxford graduate whose creative input and support to her husband were barely acknowledged. Funder used newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend to resurrect Eileen's life. Wifedom raises crucial questions about what it takes to be a writer and to be a wife in modern times. Funder's 2003 book, Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, is a deeply researched account of life in Cold War Germany. The Samuel Johnson Prize-winning title traces the lives of those who resisted the regime in East Germany and those who worked for the dreaded Stasi. Funder is also the author of the Miles Franklin Award-winning novel All That I Am and the novella The Girl With the Dogs. During her visit to India to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival 2025, Funder spoke to Vineetha Mokkil about the importance of writing stories from the point of view of the underdog and paying attention to the invisible.

What motivated you to explore the Orwells’ marriage—one of the most famous literary marriages of modern times— from the perspective of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife?