One good book I've dipped into on Orwell is by John Rodden, "Orwell:The Politics of Literary Reputation. " Think the publisher is Oxford Univ. Press. Also the the circa 1970, Penguin/Viking, "Modern Masters, " by Raymond Williams on Orwell. Ironic given Richard Johnson, yrs. ago in the pgs. of the UK socialist history journal, History Workshop Journal, scored Williams and E.P. Thompson for their alleged, "populism, nationalism, culturalism, and historicism, " (Althusserian buzz words for bad), Williams is quite cutting on Orwell for his "little England" sentiments and nationalism. Hope people still read, Williams, btw. A good intro is a book of interviews by the NLR editors, in the 70's, "Politics and Letters. "One of these days, I'll read his novels.
Michael Pugliese