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Raoul Peck's documentary about George Orwell and his enduring relevance takes as its keynote the heretical masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four and its famous scene about the state compelling people to believe whatever it says is the truth: that two and two make five. This Orwellian anti-arithmetic of tyranny has become a political meme often repeated in social media debates.The simple experience of hearing Orwell's prose, both from his published work and letters and diaries, read aloud by Damian Lewis, is invigorating and refreshing. There's an interesting emphasis on Orwell's physical frailty, with him effectively composing his masterwork in the shadow of death. Peck amusingly juxtaposes Orwell's sickness with Winston Smith being made to do exercises and the infatuation of tyrannical regimes with public displays of physical fitness.Peck cites various movie and TV adaptations of Nineteen Eighty-Four and includes footage of Jura, where Orwell went to live, and archive photo records of Orwell's childhood and early working life as a policeman in Burma. The film also shows how Orwell predicted the rise of AI in propaganda and in soulless bread-and-circuses for the masses.The film falls down in not focusing on actual theocracies of the present day and the Orwellian qualities of Isis and Hamas. The question of how far Orwell renounced his own earlier antisemitic tendencies is not entirely addressed in this film.Orwell was disliked by some on the left for daring to write Nineteen Eighty-Four and disliked still more with the revelation 30 years ago that in 1949 he had handed over to British authorities the names of 38 public figures he considered 'crypto-communists' – a fact from which this film averts its eyes. But Orwell's complications don't compromise his genius for truth-telling.

As spring arrives, the natural world comes alive with a vibrant mix of joy and discipline. A pair of ravens perform their shuttling flight in glorious sunshine, while a charm of chaffinches flash white wing-bars through the shadows of mossy willows around the pond.A queen red-tailed bumblebee orbits a hedgebank boundary stone, then buzzes off to feed on gorse flowers or prospect for possible colony chambers below. The sounds of nature are filled with the lesser-spotted woodpecker hammering out rapid bursts of drumbeats and chiffchaffs finding their rhythm in the oaks.The article reflects on the discipline of seasonal labors and joys, where creatures return to their routines after a period of dormancy. This cycle of life is contrasted with the passage of time and the impact of suffering in the world.The author, Paul Evans, weaves in cultural references, such as an eighth-century Chinese poem by Meng Chiao, to illustrate the timeless nature of these cycles. The article concludes with a sense of hope and renewal, as the natural world awakens from its winter slumber.