Readers might be forgiven if, in reading George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, they miss the fact that his first wife, Eileen Blair, was in Spain with him, working for the Republican resistance against Franco's fascist forces. As Anna Funder points out in Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life, when George does refer to her, he does not even use her given name; she becomes merely "my wife."

In a Guardian article, the author expands on this act of erasure. "In Homage, Orwell mentions ‘my wife' 37 times but never once names her. No character can come to life without a name. But from a wife, which is a job description, all can be stolen." Eileen's contributions to the war effort were not inconsequential, as she was constantly on the move: writing propaganda in support of their cause, coordinating medical supply deliveries and other provisions, and managing communications, all while staying one step ahead of Stalinist spies.

Based provisionally at the headquarters for the British ...