Biography george talk

I had an unhappy time at university, and I now regret having gone to Oxford, even though the zoology course I took – taught, among others, by Richard Dawkins, Bill Hamilton and John Krebs – was excellent. The culture did not suit me, and when I tried to join in I fell flat on my face, sometimes in a drunken stupor. I enjoyed the holidays more: I worked on farms and as a waterkeeper on the River Kennet. I spent much of the last two years planning my escape. There was only one job I wanted, and it did not yet exist: to make investigative environmental programmes for the BBC.

After hammering on its doors for a year, I received a phone call from the head of the BBC’s natural history unit during my final exams. He told me: “you’re so fucking persistent you’ve got the job.” They took me on, in 1985, as a radio producer, to make wildlife programmes. Thanks to a supportive boss, I was soon able to make the programmes I wanted to produce. We broke some major stories. Our documentary on the sinking of a bulk carrier off the coast of Cork, uncovering evidence that suggested it had been deliberately scuppered, won a Sony award.

Just as it began to work out as I’d hoped, Margaret Thatcher and Marmaduke Hussey launched their attack on the independence of the BBC. They forced the resignation of the director-general, Alasdair Milne, in January 1987, and this brave, dynamic organisation became a cow’rin, tim’rous beastie almost overnight. A few weeks later my boss told me that it was all over: we would no longer be making investigative programmes.

I moved to the World Service, to work as a current affairs producer, but I was already planning to leave the BBC. While I was working for the natural history unit, I had come across the story of Suharto’s transmigration programme in Indonesia. Backed by the World Bank and Western governments, he was moving hundreds of thousands of people from the inner islands to the outer islands

With GEORGE about to release, I am aware that many people are looking for ways to respectfully talk about this book and its author (that’s me!) Here are a few notes:

If you’re talking about the main character, go ahead and call her Melissa. She really likes it when you do. And if it sparks a conversation, great. Don’t worry about spoilers. Melissa uses that name for herself in the first chapter of the book. If you call her George from time to time, that’s understandable too. It is the title* of the book. All the same, calling her Melissa is great practice for calling folks what they want to be called. What’s never OK is using the pronoun he for Melissa. Her pronouns is she. Always.

Sometimes, you might want to talk about the fact that Melissa is transgender and that she’s the only one who knows it. Here are some ways you can say this:

• Melissa is a transgender girl who hasn’t shared this part of herself with anyone else.
• Melissa is a girl who the world sees as a boy named George.
• Melissa is a girl who was assigned male at birth, and who hasn’t told anyone otherwise yet.

You’ll notice that I don’t say “Melissa (or George) identifies as.”  I say “Melissa is … who is identified as…” This small difference has a huge effect, both on clarifying that you see Melissa for who she is, and in advancing language that recognizes and honors trans people.   Melissa is who she is. The trouble is in how she is seen (and unseen) by the people around her. And please avoid language about how she’s “stuck” or that her body is “wrong”. These are tired tropes that rely on pity and “other” status.

As For Me

I am genderqueer and use the singular-they as a gender neutral pronoun. You probably already use the singular-they when you talk about an undefined person: “when the guest arrives, tell them to put their things in the closet and to have themselves a seat.” It flows naturally (maybe even more so if you don’t think about it.) It looks like

When Covid made events impossible, in order to give Members opportunities to get value for their membership, we used Zoom to create a monthly meeting with a speaker on an Orwell related topic. This has proved to be popular, and we have made it a permanent part of the Society’s programme for members.

We call them George Talks. Each month with the exception of August, the Society hosts a Zoom based “George Talk” for members.

They have covered a wide range of subjects from Richard Blair talking about his childhood on Jura with his father while his he was writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, to the authors of newly published books introducing their books to members close to the publication date. Some of these are not available to non-members because they include research which the speaker does not want to be in the public domain while they are continuing to research a subject. Most are available at our YouTube channel.

In addition, we have held joint Zoom events with other Literary Societies and are open to any suggestions for other similar events.
The 2025 schedule is attached, which will be updated when the available slots have been filled.

How to attend
Members will receive emails before all events inviting them to register. The registration form is easy to complete and a link to the event will be sent in time to log in.

(Table revised 31 Dec ’24)

Chronological List

American television and radio commentator (1931–2003)

Wally George (born Walter George Pearch, Jr.; December 4, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American conservative radio and television commentator. Calling himself the "Father of Combat TV," he was a fixture on Southern California television for three decades (1975–2003), most notably as the host of Hot Seat, which began as a local show on KDOC Channel 56, a local Southern California based UHF TV station in Anaheim, Orange County in 1983. His other nicknames were "Mr. Conservative" and "Mr. America" in the 1980s–1990s and he represented the strong conservative fan base of Orange County and the Coachella Valley of California where he was also on their local TV stations.

Early life

George was born Walter George Pearch, Jr. in Oakland, California. His father, Walter George Pearch, worked in the marine shipping industry. His mother, Eugenia Clinchard, had been a vaudeville performer and child movie actress, in Essanay Studios westerns starring Broncho Billy Anderson. George grew up in San Mateo and was 13 when his parents divorced, after which his mother moved to the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. He was educated at the Hollywood Professional School.

Career

By age 16, George was working as a disc-jockey at AM radio station KIEV in Glendale, California, followed by work at other stations in Los Angeles, Santa Rosa () and Guam (). He also authored entertainment-oriented colum