Moving stationery
From Valerie Grove Sir: How many staplers, exactly, did George Orwell possess? Alastair Campbell (Diary, 22 February) is pleased that Mark Seddon, editor of Tribune, is contributing to Campbell's London Marathon charity appeal 'a great item for auction — George Orwell's stapler'. How very interesting. Only two years ago, at a Tribune benefit evening on 8 March 2001, an auction was held and I found myself in a bidding duel — for George Orwell's stapler, which I secured for the ludicrous sum of £.400. When it arrived it not only bore no trace of G. Orwell's or E. Blair's ownership, it fell apart in my hands. I passed the useless object on to Di. Taylor, who is writing Orwell's biography. Is Orwell's stapler a modern version of fragments of the True Cross?
Valerie Grove
London N6
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