the garden, the fire, and the clock
		''While visiting Scotland near the end of May 1946, Orwell spent some time at Eileen's gravesite in Newcastle. The Polyantha roses that he had planted on her grave the year before had all rooted well, he noted in in his diary. And that day, he planted six new varieties of flowers, hopefully they would all take root. A visitor to the cemetery in 2012, discovered with some difficulty, Eileen's uncared-for gravestone with the extremely simple engraving he chose for her - a sharp contrast to the words on the gravestone right next to hers which began more typically. ''In loving memory of my beloved wife.'' And, of course, there was no sign of the flowers Orwell left in Eileen's memory seventy years earlier, only scrubby weeds and baked mud. Until quite recently hardly anyone knew where Eileen's grave was. Happily, her gravesite is now being better cared for''. From Eileen: The Making of George Orwell, by Sylvia Topp
When I visited Eileen's grave in August 2017, I found it, as said uncared for, with grass and weeds, in particular Horsetail weed beginning to grow profusely around it. This is a very invasive, deep rooted, fast growing weed that is difficult to eradicate. Indeed, on one visit in late 2019, Eileen's grave was a little oasis in a sea of Horsetail weed. I have since noticed that the council gardeners are, at least, trying to keep it under control. I decided to return in a few days with some tools, to cut the grass and dig the borders and place some cut flowers. It was also at this time that I learned Unbound Books were crowdfunding the first biography of Eileen, entitled, Eileen: The Making of George Orwell by Sylvia Topp, I immediately entered my pledge to get the book published; it quickly achieved its 100% funding. Via the Orwell Society, which I had recently joined, I contacted Orwell's son Richard Blair, who is Patron of the Orwell Society, to tell him what I had done, and he asked if there was any sign of the rose he had planted in 2015, for the 70th anniversary of Eileen's death. Unfortunately, as I was cutting the grass, I found the small rotted stump of the rose, a victim of overzealous council gardeners. But still attached was the name tag, the rose was Tranquility, a white rose forming from yellow buds tinged with red.
I contacted Richard with an update of what I had found and I asked if I could replace the rose. Richard gratefully approved and asked if I could plant another white rose. I looked around the local garden centres to try and find Tranquility - but with no luck. So after looking at many varieties I decided on Rosa Noaschnee (Flower Carpet White) as it is naturally disease resistant and has a long flowering season. This has proved correct, as it produces masses of white blooms with yellow stamens from July through to October. I planted it in September 2017 to the left of the headstone, well out of the way of a council mower, along with some bedding plants, Pansy, Impatience and Lobelia in front of the headstone. Unfortunately, I returned a few days later to find no bedding, that blight of the gardener; the slug had munched the lot.
		At the beginning of Spring 2018 the rose was doing fine, with masses of buds waiting to bloom, and with the dreaded slug in my mind, I decided to plant Begonias in front of the headstone - they have a long flowering season, produce masses of colour, from white to pink to crimson and, most importantly, they have waxy flowers and foliage which slugs hate. To add the defences and decoration I purchased some slate chippings, and this has proved a perfect strategy, no slug problems. I also added a black glazed terracotta pot and put in a beautiful new variety of black Petunia.
In July 2019, and with Eileen: The Making of George Orwell almost ready for publication, I decided to have a granite plaque made to go in front of the headstone. I ran the idea past Richard first, and he gave the go ahead. I thought it would be a nice addition for Orwell fans and students who visit the grave, but also anyone walking through St Andrew's cemetery may see it and be drawn to read the inscription and portrait, and discover Eileen's grave for the first time. I have, on a few occasions, chatted to visitors, dog walkers etc. walking past, talking about Eileen, her biography, the Orwell Society, and many had no idea the grave was there, along with Eileen's portrait I chose the inscription: EILEEN MAUD BLAIR Wife of ERIC ARTHUR BLAIR (George Orwell) 1936-1945 I then went to a garden centre to source a piece of stone on which to attach the plaque. I chose a piece of Lakeland stepping stone. The plaque and stone were put in place in August 2019; I sent some photographs to Richard and was overjoyed he was pleased with the result. In September 2019, I put a white Cyclamen in full bloom in the black terracotta pot. Cyclamen, which are bulbs, flower for a very long time: indeed, they flower when nothing else will, but I was utterly amazed when visiting throughout autumn and winter up to March 2020 that it was still producing blooms, seven months of continuous flowering. This brings us to 2020 and Covid-19. Sylvia Topp's book tour was cut short in March and Sylvia was advised to fly back home to Canada. The tour was to have culminated with a visit and talk at The Word in South Shields, the unveiling of a blue plaque on Westgate House, South Shields (Eileen's childhood home) on the 29th March, and a visit to her grave, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of her death. I was not able to tend Eileen's grave as regularly as usual, and as I do not grow my own bedding, was unable to purchase any. I did, however, in July, with the Grainger Market in Newcastle fully reopened, with restrictions, purchase and plant a lovely Campanula Pristar White in the black pot, and on the 15th of August, with things getting back to some sort of normality. I visited and planted another white Cyclamen in full bloom in front of the plaque, for the 75th anniversary of the publication of Animal Farm. On the 18th March 2021, my first visit of the year, I took two Primroses, purple and white, for the anniversary of Eileen's death, 29th March, I noticed, by the shape of the leaves, what looked like a Primrose coming through in front of the headstone and thought I would leave it. On going back on 25th March to water the plants, they were flowering beautifully, and the plant coming through was unmistakably a Primrose. I have never planted these flowers until that visit on the 18th. It would be lovely and rather fanciful to think that this flower could have grown from seed lying dormant from the plants Orwell had put in on his last visit on May 22nd 1946, and over the previous 5 years, with me digging and adding feed and compost to the baked, dry soil, had brought seed to the surface, but plant science suggests seed cannot lie dormant for such a long period of time, it is much more likely it is seed transferred from the plants I had been putting in, but this lovely white Primrose now flowers beautifully every Spring. In March 2022, the postponed weekend of events from 2020 went ahead. Sylvia Topp and her daughter flew over from her home in Canada, and travelled up to Newcastle with Richard Blair, Quentin Kopp and members of the Orwell Society. The weather couldn't have been kinder. On Saturday 26th March we all went to The Word in South Shields for the official book launch, and then to the packed auditorium for talks, interviews, readings, and a screening of local film maker Gary Alikivi's short documentary Wild Flower about Eileen, which he made in 2013. I was gob smacked and overjoyed to receive a copy of the graphic novel of Nineteen Eighty-Four by Fido Nesti from Richard, for my upkeep of his mother’s grave. Gary Alikivi then took us all on an Eileen related walk around South Shields.
The owner of Westgate House and the Lady Mayoress receiving a gift of a Nineteen Eighty-Four commemorative plaque from Quentin Kopp and Richard Blair.
	Then on Sunday we all travelled back to South Shields for the unveiling of a blue plaque at Eileen's childhood home Westgate House. Gary Alikivi was instrumental in getting the plaque instigated. Dignitaries in attendance were the Lady Mayoress, who unveiled the plaque and South Tyneside MP, Emma Lewell- Buck. We then travelled by Metro to Eileen's grave in St Andrew's Cemetery in West Jesmond, to see the work I had done over the previous 6 years. Richard said a few words, laid daffodils on the grave, and presented Gary Alikivi with a copy of the graphic novel of Animal Farm.
In June 2022 I was contacted, via the Orwell Society, by Eileen M. Hunt, political theorist and Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame University, Indiana USA. Eileen is researching for a book on the women who influenced Orwell, and would be in Newcastle for a big conference at Newcastle Civic Centre. She asked if I would take her on an Eileen Blair tour of related sites; which I did with pleasure. As well as those mentioned previously, I also arranged a visit to Fernwood House in Jesmond, now owned by Lowes Financial Management. From 1937 to 1963 it was a maternity hospital, and was where Eileen died on the operating table on 29th March 1945, whilst under anaesthetic to undergo a Hysterectomy with severe uterine bleeding. Orwell was in France reporting on the end of the war. I had never visited myself, but as I would be accompanying an American professor, I took a chance, and we were graciously granted a visit to Eileen's 'possible' room and the operating theatre on the ground floor, now board and meeting rooms. This was a very emotional visit, as Eileen's last letter she ever wrote to Orwell, whilst the administered morphine took effect and her writing tails off, was discovered on the table next to her bed: ''already enema'd, injected with morphia in the right arm which is a nuisance, cleaned and packed up like a precious image in cotton wool and bandages...I haven't seen Harvey Evers(surgeon) since arrival & apparently Gwen (O'Shaughnessy, sister- in- law) didn't communicate with him & no one knows what operation I am having! They don't believe that Harvey Evers really left it to me to decide...But I must say I feel irritated though I am being a model patient. This is a nice room-ground floor so one can see the garden. Not much in it except daffodils and I think arabis but a nice lawn. My bed isn't near the window but it faces the right way. I also see the fire and the clock.'' No one was prosecuted for an operation that should not have gone ahead, until blood transfusions had been given, as Eileen 'was in a very anaemic condition' (Coroners report)
Every year I try and plant something different. I planted the right border with Lobelia and white decorative pebbles, and in 2023 I decided to source the plants Orwell had put in on his last visit in 1946 before heading for Barnhill on Jura, where he would write his final great novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. His diary entry reads: ''Polyantha roses on E's grave have all rooted well. Planted aubrietia, miniature phlox, saxifrage, a kind of dwarf broom, a house-leek of some kind, & miniature dianthus. Plants not in very good condition, but it was rainy weather, so they should strike.'' I found them all, and they did strike and flower beautifully.
	With the publication of ‘Eileen: The Making of George Orwell’ in 2020 and the very controversial ‘Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life’ by Anna Funder in 2023, it is always lovely to see, when I visit, that people are discovering Eileen's grave, possibly for the first time. They leave little mementos of their visit, cut flowers on numerous occasions and, in 2023, a little toy farm pig and horse, in reference to Animal Farm. And an old three-penny-bit, in reference to Gordon Comstock in ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’. Will this become tradition? I rather hope so. In March 2024 I added a small toy farm goat, for Eileen, and the goat called Muriel that Eileen and Orwell kept on their small holding at Wallington, and was a named animal in Animal Farm. Click here for a Google Map of the location of Eileen’s grave
	Photo by Gary Alikivi
In March 2024 I was contacted by Quentin Kopp chair of the Orwell Society, to say that a Newcastle University student had been trying to find me since I had chatted to her and her partner and fellow student at the gravesite the previous September. Maria then emailed me to say they had remembered my passion and enthusiasm to keep Eileen's memory alive by tending her grave, and that she and four others were film degree students at Newcastle University and had been tasked with making a short documentary under the heading 'Worth Fighting For', and would I like to be the subject of the documentary! You could have knocked me down with a feather! I agreed and filming was completed in May 2024.
Maria introduces the film Photo by Pepe			Maria, her fellow students and yours truly Photo by Pepe
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ commemorative plaques available from the Orwell Society: https://orwellsociety.com/ (Opens in a new window) Sources: Eileen: The Making of George Orwell by Sylvia Topp Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit The Orwell Society All photographs by Brian Thompson, except where indicated