George Orwell: how romantic walks with girlfriends inspired Nineteen Eighty-Four

Details from 50 newly released letters echo scenes between Winston and Julia in the dystopian novel

The feeling of longing for a lost love can be powerful, and George Orwell makes full use of it in his work. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, his great dystopian novel, the hero Winston Smith's memories of walks taken with Julia, the woman he can never have, give the story its humanity.

Now a stash of largely unseen private correspondence, handed over to an academic archive on Friday by the author's son, reveal just how large a role romantic nostalgia played in Orwell's own life. The contents are also proof that the writer was an unlikely but enthusiastic ice-skater.