The Orwell Lecture 2026: Sarah Wynn-Williams

The lawyer and former director of global public policy at Facebook delivers this year’s Orwell Lecture, which was set up to shine a light on brave writing. A former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer, Sarah Wynn-Williams joined Facebook after pitching a job and worked there for many years. After leaving the company, she has continued to work on tech policy, including artificial intelligence. Due to the legal action taken against Wynn-Williams by Meta, she’s unable to talk about the company. Set up to shine a light on brave writing, the Orwell Lecture has been given annually since 1989 in memory of the author, essayist and journalist George Orwell. Speakers are tasked with discussing ‘any topic Orwell might have been interested in’, and the lecturers over the years have included Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Steven Pinker, Ian McEwan and Dame Hilary Mantel. The Orwell Foundation is a charity which shares George Orwell’s vision of a decent society where thought is free, truth is valued and brave writing is celebrated. Here, its annual lecture returns to the Southbank Centre for a third year.