ABSTRACT
One of George Orwell’s main contributions to Tribune as literary editor was the ‘As I Please’ column. For Christopher Silvester Orwell’s columns have to be considered in the context of a tradition of ‘personal journalism’ which emerged out of the 19th century’s Romantic movement and its focus on the contemplation of the self. The ‘As I Please’ column of 28 April 1944 captures many of the elements of Orwell’s style. According to Holmes, comment pieces also allow a publication to run articles which express more extreme versions of its own ideology. Orwell uses essentially two strategies to promote his notion of ‘the community of the left’: firstly through columns focusing on political, cultural, social or literary issues; and, secondly, and most imaginatively, through developing a close relationship with his readers. Orwell’s politics, literary criticism and social observations are never Marxist in the strictest sense and he maintains a longstanding suspicion of leftist ideological abstractions.
