Background
Orwell loved the natural world from his childhood when he rambled in the fields around Henley-on-Thames and on the South Downs at Eastbourne. His letters and diaries reveal his careful observation of the nature surrounding him and of field expeditions throughout his life, even when in Catalonia or at the sanatorium in Kent in 1938.
Orwell had been disappointed by earlier letters of complaint to Tribune, when he ventured into nature-related topics instead of hard politics. An "As I Please" article published on 21 January 1944 referring to rambler roses he'd planted at the cottage he lived in before the war had brought correspondence criticising his bourgeois nostalgia.
Read more about this topic: Some Thoughts On The Common Toad
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