In 1928, a former Colonial police officer and aspiring author named Eric Arthur Blair moved from his London home to Paris in order to buckle down and launch his writing career. The move didn’t work out so well, but it provided the writer we now know as George Orwell with a wealth of material for his first book Down and Out In Paris and London. Although he managed to scrounge-up some freelance gigs, Blair eventually was forced to work menial jobs in order to survive. When even that didn’t cut it, in December 1929, after a year and a half in Paris, Blair returned to England.

Now, Orwell’s months in Paris have now been pinned to a Google Map by Paris-based writer Duncan Roberts and Orwell expert Darcy Moore. Duncan Roberts  has written a book titled Orwell and the Russian Captain which focuses on the real people and locations in Orwell’s first book. Darcy Moore  is currently working on a book called Orwell in Paris: The Making of a Writer.

Their Google map is an excellent guide for exploring Paris through the eyes of the struggling author. The location pins aprovide an opportunity for users to follow the writer’s footsteps, as he made his life in Paris. For more on Orwell in Paris, check out the websites of Duncan Roberts and Darcy Moore. Check out their map in more detail here.