These days truth is increasingly elusive, replaced by a litany of false narratives and disinformation. Previewed by George Orwell some seven decades ago, and practiced most recently by serial truth-twisters such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, fact-free fake news has become as inescapable as it is inevitable. — Earlier this year I published the story behind George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was a fascinating tale. But diving deep into the life of a fascinating man and the book that pretty much killed him, was a weighty tome, running to more pages than most people wish to consume.