 Biographer Michael Shelden points out that the rental for the cottage was less than £2 a month.Orwell, as well as living off the land, supplemented his income by running the cottage as the village store.Yet, writing to Jack Common in April 1936 about setting up shop, "Orwell sounds hard put to find £20 in order to stock his shelves, rather than a man who had received £500 a couple of months earlier."