A Hanging (1931) is a short essay written by George Orwell, first published (under his real name) in August 1931 in the John Middleton Murry’s British literary magazine The Adelphi[1] and then reprinted in 1946 in the British literary magazine The New Savoy. Set in Burma, where Orwell (under his real name of Eric Arthur Blair) had served in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927, it describes the execution of a criminal.[2]