Colm Tóibín
Barcelona, from George Orwell to democracy
Colm Tóibín pays tribute to George Orwell
Miquel Berga
George Orwell arrived in Barcelona on Boxing Day 1936. He was 33 years old. He came here to fight as a volunteer on the side of the Republic as an anti-fascist militant. He found a revolutionised and revolutionary city where, in his words, “the working class was in the saddle”.