Shooting an Elephant

"Shooting an Elephant" is Orwell's searing and painfully honest account of his experience as a police officer in imperial Burma, in which he kills an escaped elephant in front of a crowd 'solely to avoid looking a fool'. The other masterly essays in this collection include classics such as "My Country Right or Left", "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys", his memoir of the horrors of public school, as well as discussions of Shakespeare, sleeping rough, boys' weeklies, and a spirited defence of English cooking. Opinionated, uncompromising, provocative and hugely entertaining, these essays show Orwell's unique ability to get to the heart of any subject.