{{Short description|1974 memoir by Jacintha Buddicom}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox book | image = Eric&Us.jpg | author = Jacintha Buddicom | pub_date = 1974 | language = English | genre = Memoir | publisher = Leslie Frewin | caption = First edition }}{{George Orwell sidebar}} {{italic title}} '''''Eric & Us'''''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Buddicom |first1=Jacintha |title=Eric & Us |date=2006 |publisher=Finlay Publisher |location=Chichester |isbn=978-0-9553708-0-9}}</ref> is a 1974 memoir by Jacintha Buddicom recalling her childhood friendship with Eric Blair, the real name of author George Orwell. Buddicom first met Blair when he was eleven and he became very close to her family. Their friendship lasted until Blair became a policeman in Burma and the two lost touch. Blair and Buddicom never saw one another again and did not resume contact until 1949, shortly before Orwell's death from tuberculosis.
Buddicom's memoir, as well as recalling her relationship with Orwell, shows her disappointment in some of the views he took — for instance, she condemned his decision to fight in the Spanish Civil War as interfering in the affairs of another country. She also portrayed him as reserved but happy, in contrast to the bleak picture Orwell presents of his childhood in "Such, Such Were the Joys".<ref name=Leith>{{cite news| last = Leith| first =Sam| title = George Orwell's schooldays| newspaper =The Guardian| date = 8 February 2014| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/08/george-orwell-such-such-schooldays| access-date =15 January 2026 }}</ref>
Buddicom's cousin, Dione Venables, added a postscript to the memoir in 2006, suggesting that the real reason for the ending of Blair and Buddicom's friendship was the possibility that Blair had attempted to take their relationship further than Buddicom was ready for in what was characterised as a ''botched seduction''.<ref name="hughes">{{cite web|last=Hughes|first=Kathryn|author-link=Kathryn Hughes|date=18 February 2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/17/georgeorwell.biography|title=Such were the joys|work=The Guardian|access-date=25 June 2024}}</ref>
thumb|Jacintha Buddicom, author of ''Eric & Us''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eric and Us}} Category:1974 non-fiction books Category:Books about George Orwell Category:Literary memoirs Category:British memoirs Category:English-language non-fiction books {{lit-bio-book-stub}}