Sonia Brownell

Sonia Brownell was the last wife of author George Orwell.

Orwell first met her when she worked as an assistant for Cyril Connolly, an old friend of Orwell's, at the literary magazine Horizon. Following the death of his first wife Eileen, Orwell became desperately lonely, and in his loneliness he married Sonia at the very end of his life. Some commentators have argued that she helped Orwell through the painful last months of his life and gave him a hitherto unknown sense of joy. Others saw her as a mercenary who was only interested in becoming his literary widow. She was fiercely protective of his estate following his death, and edited the four volumes of his collected essays, journalism and letter with Ian Angus.