WRITTEN by George Orwell on a remote house in Jura more than 60 years ago, 1984 offered a dystopian vision of a society where thought was controlled by the state.
Now the acclaimed novel is surging up the best-sellers lists, thanks in part to a row over the White House's claims that President Donald Trump's inauguration last Friday had the 'largest audience' in history.
Aide Kellyanne Conway, attempting to justify press secretary Sean Spicer's claims, despite aerial images apparently showing less people attended Mr Trump's ceremony than Barack Obama's in 2009, said he was presenting 'alternative facts'
One presenter on NBC responded: "Alternative facts are not facts, they are falsehoods." Another TV anchor, interviewing Ms Conway on CNN, compared the phrase to the language of 'newspeak' or 'doublephrase' used by Orwell to represent how 1984's totalitarian state would pull the wool over people's eyes.
1984 is currently the sixth best-selling book on Amazon's charts.
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