George Orwell's "Animal Farm" may be 80 years old this weekend but it still "resonates today" – and "not just as a terrible indictment of left-wing idealism and Communist tyranny", said writer A.N. Wilson in The Times .

His "incomparable masterpiece" illustrates "exactly what Lenin, and then Stalin, did to the population of the USSR" at the beginning of the last century but the animal characters' "pathetic weakness to believe political mantras" remains "horribly" relevant in 2025.

'Forever current'

The book is a "parable about our willingness to compromise with evil when it suits us", said Wilson. "We hold up our hands in horror" at Jamal Khashoggi 's murder in a Saudi consulate, but "we'll extend a warm welcome" to the kingdom's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. "And we all know what is

See Full Page