Orwell, Una Marson, and Mulk Raj Anand

Abstract This biographical and theoretical chapter focuses on two Orwell collaborators at the BBC: Una Marson and Mulk Raj Anand. Through a discussion of Orwell’s work and friendships with Marson and Anand, this chapter closely examines what Susheila Nasta has called their “substantial two-way intellectual interactions” and illustrates that these interactions were not only built in the radio station, but were also anticipated by similarly held political positions on empire and race. Divided into two parts, this chapter first discusses each author’s politics and how these led them to the BBC before turning to their collaborative work on Voice and their continued contact in their radio afterlives. A close analysis of these authors’ radio careers and BBC partnerships shows that the aesthetics and politics of Marson and Anand were not transformed by working with Orwell, but instead were enhanced by their shared literary and political commitments.