Kent is well known for its literary connections.
Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Ian Fleming, TS Eliot and HG Wells - to name just a few - all drew inspiration from the county in their works.
Lesser known is that George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, also had connections to the garden of England.
Local historian Terry Bird said he did not understand why this association had slipped under the radar.
"When you think of Kent's literary history, you [don't] think of... George Orwell," he told Secret Kent .
The author - under his real name of Eric Blair - is recorded as living at a chicken farm in Smarden in the 1921 census.
Bird said the reason he was there was unknown.
Whether Orwell was still at Eton - where he went to school - or if he had just left was "not quite clear", he added.
He next came to Kent in 1931, coming down from London and staying in West Malling Tramps Home for a night.
Orwell recorded his memories of this experience in a published essay.
Before moving on, he picked hops for a couple of weeks.
The historian pushed back on rumours that a Manor Farm near Wateringbury inspired the setting of Animal Farm - Orwell's allegorical take on the 1917 Russian Revolution, where farmyard animals kick out their human master only to face a new tyranny.
"Manor Farm is a very common name," Bird told the BBC. "It's a coincidence."
However, Bird said Manor Farm was instead inspired by Brewers Hall Farm in Mereworth, where Orwell picked hops.
He added it was owned by the Blest family, who had an "extensive network" of hop farms across the county.
"At the time, the villages around here were swamped by hop pickers - more numerous than the local inhabitants," said Bird.
Orwell was accommodated in a tin hut, one form of temporary accommodation used to house the workers, he said.
Other locations have also been pointed to as inspiration for Manor Farm.
Some claim it is based on Chalk Farm in Willingdon, near Eastbourne where the author went to school as a child.
Old Major - the wise old boar that inspires the animal rebellion - is referred to as Willingdon Beauty.
A farm in Hertfordshire has similarly been cited as an inspiration for the book.
Orwell's next appearance in Kent was a stay in Preston Hall Hospital for around six months between 1938 and 1939.
Bird explained that the author, who had a history of chest illness, had begun coughing up blood that year.
His wife's brother was a well-known consultant for chest problems and sent him to the hospital, which had been established for soldiers returning from World War One with tuberculosis.
"He improved a bit while he was there," said Bird. "He had very good treatment."
Kent should be proud of its Orwell links, he added.
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