Burmese Days is a novel by British writer George Orwell. It was published in 1934 and based loosely on Orwell's five years as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police force in Burma (now Myanmar). It is a tale about the waning days of British imperialism before World War II. Publishers were reluctant to publish the book due to fear of libel suits. No retired British officers filed any libel suits, but the book was not available in India and Burma at the time of publication. The characters in the novel were based on real people and only on the insistence of the publishers were some of the places and names changed. It has been favourably compared with similar works by other British novelists such as Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham.