As he lay dying, George Orwell summoned his publisher Fred Warburg to his bedside.

No longer capable of holding a pen, the writer dictated a message to the public about the world of his new novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. ‘Don’t let it happen,’ he concluded. ‘It depends on you.’

In an age of inescapable surveillance, fake news, alternative facts, would-be Big Brothers and endless low-level wars, Orwell’s warning still speaks to us today, and with greater force than ever before.

Republished with a new introduction by Dennis Glover, author of The Last Man in Europe, Orwell’s prophetic masterpiece is truly a story for our times. Orwell’s courage and his refusal to be silenced inspire hope that, ultimately, the spirit of humanity will win through.