A GIRL FROM THE FICTION DEPARTMENT by Hilary Spurling Hamish Hamilton, L9.99, pp. 208, ISBN 0241141656 If Orwell's biographers are to be believed, his second wife, Sonia, was a grasping, angry woman who lived off his talent - and royalties - for almost 30 years. The passion with which she defended his interests, battling off would-be biographers and film producers, has been seen as ridiculous: she has been turned into a caricature of the wilfully obstructive literary widow. The fact that George Orwell himself entrusted his entire estate to her, including his wish that no life should be writte...
