Sales of Orwell's 1984 surge after Trump aide's 'alternative facts'

Comments by controversial White House adviser Kellyanne Conway have propelled George Orwell's classic novel, 1984, to become a top selling book on Amazon.

Sales of Orwell's dark drama set in a totalitarian state have soared since Conway, a top aide to US president Donald Trump, used the phrase "alternative facts" in an interview.

On Tuesday the novel was the sixth best-selling book on Amazon.

First published in 1949 and regarded as one of the 20th century's most influential novels 1984 describes life in a future authoritarian state called Oceania.

The novel focuses on the impact of state surveillance and the use of government propaganda to enforce loyalty to its dictator, known as 'Big Brother'.

Its newfound popularity comes after White House press secretary Sean Spicer fiercely argued that Trump's swearing-in ceremony on Friday attracted the largest ever audience for an inauguration despite clear photographic evidence to the contrary.

Conway later defended Spicer's comment, saying his words were actually "alternative facts".

Comparisons were made with the term "newspeak" from 1984, which was used to signal a fictional language that aims at eliminating personal thought and also "doublethink".

In the book Orwell writes that it "means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them".

The connection was first made by Washington Post journalist Karen Tumulty during CNN's news show Reliable Sources.

"Alternative facts is a George Orwell phrase," she told the news panel programme.

Surging sales of 1984 have been linked to past political controversies. In 2013, after former US government contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information, the novel's popularity rose sharply.