''The English People'' is an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

by English author

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

, first published in August 1947. It was commissioned in September 1943 by W. J. Turner, Collins's general editor, for the series ''Britain in Pictures''. The idea for the series came from the Ministry of Information. It was published with twenty-five illustrations, eight of which were full-page colour plates, and included work by artists

Edward Ardizzone Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All ...

, Dame Laura Knight, L. S. Lowry,

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

, John Minton, and Feliks Topolski. Written during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it presents Orwell's vision of what it meant to be "English". Orwell did not think highly of his own work. He described it as "silly" and "propaganda", and refused to allow it to be reprinted. A dissenting opinion is that Orwell often tended to disparage his works, regardless of critical praise.

References

1947 essays Essays by George Orwell Pamphlets {{essay-stub