Photo from 1933 – only three years before our last top flight title – by Monsieur Salut’s own National Union of Journalists
Monsieur Salut writes: what might George Orwell have said of the takeover? Will a new manager give Jack Rodwell a cuddle and turn him back into the player he thinks he still is? Questions about the takeover abound and who better than Pete Sixsmith to delve into his old George Orwell paperbacks, and memories of teaching history to year 11, and seek to tease out the answers? ….
Many years ago, when I was a history teacher in County Durham, I would suggest that my Year 11 students should read Animal Farm to get George Orwell’s view of the Russian Revolution and the descent into Stalinism. It was a popular read partly because it was a short one, partly because it had talking animals in it and partly because they liked to draw parallels between the animals and various members of the teaching staff.
The animal I was decreed to resemble was not one of the pigs but Benjamin the donkey. He is the companion of the great Boxer, the mainstay of the revolution who follows every edict with rampant enthusiasm, something Benjamin does not.
