I wonder what influence Elisa Maria Langford Rae had on Orwell, and whether she contributed to his decision to use a pen-name. When he knew her she had already changed her name from Ethel Maud to Elisa Maria, and would later re-invent her entire background and falsely claim to be a Belgian aristocrat (she was in fact a lower middle class Scot).

How much is known about their friendship? It interests me because Elisa Maria/Ethel Maud was my grandmother, and I'm trying to fill in some of the blanks in her life.