British Council apologises 70 years after rejecting George Orwell essay on food

Treatise was deemed 'excellent', although it was suggested author's marmalade recipe had too much sugar in it

George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eight-four was published in 1949 (AP)

An essay on the UK's cooking by George Orwell was rejected more than 70 years ago by the British Council.

The cultural institute wrote a letter of apology to the world-renowned writer of 1984 and Animal Farm after it discovered in the archives its rejection letter of his treatise on traditional British food.

Despite commissioning the author in 1946 to defend British cuisine as part of its efforts to promote home cooking overseas, the Council changed its mind and returned the essay unpublished.

The letter apologises to Orwell for the “stupid situation” about his essay, entitled “British Cookery”, and explains despite one or two “minor criticisms” it was excellent.

However, it suggests that his recipe for orange marmalade contained “too much sugar and water”.

In his essay, Orwell defended traditional cuisine in the UK, despite the years of rationing which were still underway.

He did, however, admit “the characteristic British diet is a simple, rather heavy, perhaps slightly barbarous diet, with its main emphasis on sugar and animal fats”.

In his effort to explain the UK's eating habits to foreign readers, Orwell explained: “It is the diet of a wet northern country where butter is plentiful, … where hot drinks are acceptable at most hours of the day [but] all the spices and some of the stronger-tasting herbs are exotic products.

“Garlic, for instance, is unknown. Cheap restaurants in Britain are almost invariably bad, while in expensive restaurants the cookery is almost always French.”

Despite asking Orwell to write the essay, the British Council then decided it would be “unfortunate and unwise to publish it for the continental reader” and returned the manuscript.

Alasdair Donaldson, British Council senior policy analyst, said: “It seems that the organisation in those days was somewhat po-faced and risk-averse, and was anxious to avoid producing an essay about food (even one which mentions the disastrous effects of wartime rationing) in the aftermath of the hungry winter of 1945.”

He added: “Over 70 years later, the British Council is delighted to make amends for its slight on perhaps the UK’s greatest political writer of the twentieth century, by re-producing the original essay in full – along with the unfortunate rejection letter.

“British Cookery” has now been published on the Council’s website, along with a selection of Orwell's recipes.

George Orwell's orange marmalade recipe was panned by the British Council (iStock)

These are his instructions for orange marmalade:

Ingredients:

2 seville oranges

2 sweet oranges

2 lemons

8lbs of preserving sugar

8 pints of water

Method. Wash and dry the fruit. Halve them and squeeze out the juice. Remove some of the pith, then shred the fruit finely.

Tie the pips in a muslin bag. Put the strained juice, rind and pips into the water and soak for 48 hours.

Place in a large pan and simmer for 1/2 hours until the rind is tender. Leave to stand overnight, then add the sugar and let it dissolve before bringing to the boil.

Boil rapidly until a little of the mixture will set into a jelly when placed on a cold plate.

Pour into jars which have been heated beforehand, and cover with paper covers.