George Orwell's birthplace in India set to become a museum

Dilapidated colonial bungalow where the writer was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bihar state, will become world's first Orwell museum

Conservationists in India have started to restore the dilapidated colonial bungalow in which George Orwell was born, as the government of Bihar state announced plans to convert it into a museum dedicated to the author.

Besides the three-room house in which Orwell was born on 25 June 1903, the property in the small town of Motihari consists of a few tiny cottages and a large warehouse that was used to store opium. Orwell's father, Richard W Blair, worked in the remote town near the Indian-Nepalese border for the opium department, supervising poppy growers and collecting opium for export to China.

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