Anna Funder’s ‘Wifedom’: Restoring Visibility & Voice

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with multi-award-winning author Anna Funder about her choices while crafting Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life. Wifedom resurrects Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a brilliant Oxford graduate who married George Orwell in 1936.  

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:   

• Anna Funder’s inspiration for writing Wifedom  


• Why and how Eileen O’Shaughnessy was written out of George Orwell’s life story  


• How Anna restored Eileen’s voice and visibility  


• How Anna challenged the traditional biographical form by blending memoir, biography, literary criticism and feminist polemic  


• The literary devices Anna employed to craft compelling and at times, gripping, narrative  


• How Anna retraced Eileen’s footsteps through World War Two London and the trenches of the Spanish Civil War  


• How Anna revealed the systemic biases that have historically silenced women’s contributions, especially those of a wife or female partner  


• Why Wifedom stands as a testament to the importance of re-examining history through a more inclusive lens, ensuring voices like Eileen’s are heard and remembered.