Orwell in Paris: The Real Story of Down & OutFor all the books about George Orwells life and career, insights from his formative writing years remain thin on the ground. Orwells first published work, Down and Out in Paris and London has until now been the only window on his life in the French capital at the end of the 1920s. But how far can Orwells account be trusted? A lack of solid information has led Down and Out to be variously labelled as autobiography, travel writing even fictional memoir.