Maybe George Orwell would have considered it just reward for taking his pen-name from Ipswich's river, but this October thousands of people in Ipswich will be reading his classic novel Animal Farm.
They'll be taking part in the Suffolk Book League's Our Big Read and everybody can take part. There will be free copies of the book scattered across Ipswich -in pubs, wine bars, cafes, theatres, cinemas, on buses and in taxis. Just pick one up, read it and pass it on. Animal Farm is too big a pleasure for anybody to miss.
All the libraries will have lots of copies, and large print versions, audiobooks and DVDs will also be available. There will be events for children at the Central Library on Sundays, a phone-in on Radio Suffolk, a visit from D J Taylor, Orwell's biographer, and an open-to-all Talk-In at the Ipswich Central Library on Sunday 30th October 2005. There will be posters and leaflets in all the libraries giving details of all the events.