6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION #6: 1984.

 'They say every person on the planet can be linked to any other in six or fewer steps BUT what about books?

Books can be linked in obvious ways - for example, books by the same author, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge'

Yeah! After a bit of a break its time for 6 Degrees Of Separation # 6 OR, as I missed last months book, should that be 6 Degrees Of Separation #7?

Anyway .....

Hosted by Annabel and Emma, October's book (Hurrah! A book I've actually read even if it was some time ago) is ..... 

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. in his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

For me George Orwell's 1984 brings to mind .....

#1 BALTHAZAR JONES AND THE TOWER OF LONDON ZOO. Hidden away, not in the sprawling Ministry of Truth but that of London Underground's Lost Property Office, I adore Hebe and Valerie whose antics had me in stitches.

#2 MR LOVERMAN. Another novel in which you question whether or not their marriage will make it through in one piece. With his 'deeply religious and disappointed wife', Carmel, believing he sleeps with other women, seventy-four year old Barrington Jedidiah Walker is actually secretly homosexual and in love with his childhood friend, Morris.

#3. WEDLOCK: HOW GEORGIAN BRITAIN'S WORST HUSBAND MET HIS MATCH. Just as the fictional Mr Loverman explores the extent to what can happen when people fear the consequences so the memoir of  Mary Eleanor Bowes explores what happens when the richest heiress in 18th century Britain finds herself in a brutal marriage at a time when women were seen as very much the possession of their husbands, the consequences of leaving them being to lose everything they possessed.

#4 THE CHARM BRACELET. Another story of a much prized possession, a charm bracelet received as a child to which the charms have been appearing ever since. It's as if Holly's mysterious benefactor knows exactly when she needs a little magic in her life.

#5 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF NURSE MATILDA. The books upon which the Nanny McPhee films starring Emma Thompson are based. Nurse Matilda is a mysterious benefactor of sorts who stays whilst children don't want her but need her only to go when they want her but no longer need her.

#6 OTHER PEOPLE'S DAUGHTERS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE GOVERNESS. Using private letters and journals this book offers a fascinating insight into some real life Nurse Matilda's, some nineteenth century ladies without either husbands or money whose only recourse was to live in someone else's house and educate their children.

{NB Unless otherwise stated all of the books featured in this meme have been reviewed by myself on Pen and Paper.}