MI5

Britain's Own "Big Brother" Eyed Orwell

JILL LAWLESS
September 3, 2007
Huffington post.com

George Orwell
LONDON — George Orwell's left-wing views and bohemian clothes led British police to label him a communist _ but the MI5 spy agency stepped in to correct that view, the writer's newly released security file reveals.

The secret file that MI5 kept on the author from 1929 until his death in 1950 is being declassified Tuesday by the National Archives.

It reveals that in contrast to the fictional "Big Brother," the cruel and all-seeing secret police of Orwell's classic "1984," MI5 took a surprisingly benign view of the writer.