I saw Christopher Hitchens read from and speak about his latest book "Why Orwell Matters" on Saturday, on, well, why George Orwell is still relevant today over 50 years after his death. The main focus was on "1984" although Hitchens described how how his time serving the Empire (see "Burmese Days") and fighting fascism (see "Homage To Catalonia") influenced his thinking with 1984 being the summa of his life's philosophy and hatred of power wielded for power's sake...

Anyway, for the interested, a lot of what he said features in this Q&A.