<b>Coming Up for Air</b> is a novel by George Orwell, first published in June 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. It combines premonitions of the impending war with images of an idyllic Thames-side Edwardian era childhood. The novel is pessimistic, with its view that speculative builders, commercialism and capitalism are killing the best of rural England, &quot;everything cemented over&quot;, and there are great new external threats.<br />&nbsp;