In this guest blog post written for the excellent Great Writers Inspire blog, run by the University of Oxford, our founder-editor Dr Oliver Tearle explores the complex history of dystopian fiction. Click on the link below to visit the Great Writers Inspire site and read the blog post, which includes details of the science fiction novel written by Anthony Trollope, the books that influenced George Orwell’s 1984, and the E. M. Forster story which predicted instant messaging and Skype.