On 18 August 1941 Orwell joined the BBC's Overseas Service. After a crash training course (the documents for which are reproduced here), he was appointed a Talks Producer responsible for features, talks, & commentaries on the war, to be broadcast to India. He wrote at least 220 news commentaries for, & broadcast to, India & occupied Malaya & Indonesia, of which Orwell read fifty-six. This volume shows that formal censorship was not as great a problem as has been supposed, though it obviously occurred & Orwell's brushes with censors are shown in detail. Along with Volumes XIV & XV, Volume XIII shows the enormous efforts he made to disseminate culture rather than crude propaganda. It is in this volume that the origins of ' Room 101' are to be found; it has examples of his first 'courses' for Indian university students
- the forerunner of the Open University; the first issue of his broadcast poetry magazine, ' Voice'; & a number of his own broadcasts, including ' The Re-discovery of Europe'. He continued to review, to write essays, & to contribute to Partisan Review & he was still active in the Home Guard.