"Oh, it was common knowledge long before that," M snorts, with a slight shake of her head at the vast sums of knowledge of the young. "Orwell lived through the same war as the rest of us, he just was one of the people capable of seeing past the propaganda."

(Admittedly, a young Barbara Mawdsley had been all of seven years' old at the time of Germany's surrender, and far more keenly interested in the possibility of her school being bombed than the reasons behind it.)

"Of course, Orwell's mistake was that he gave people too much credit. No need to be nearly as heavy-handed with history and the news as the government of Oceania was when you've got a Page Three girl in the Sun and a football match on."