In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess’s interest in fiction. This podcast, by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, explores the novels on Burgess’s list with the help of writers, critics and other special guests.

In this episode, Graham Foster learns about The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury, with guest Joseph Williams.

The History Man tells the story of Howard Kirk, a sociology professor at a modern campus university. Howard is a strident and radical political voice on campus who dominates both his fellow lecturers and his students with his opinions and encourages sit-ins and protests for all manner of causes. Howard is also morally compromised: he has affairs with his female students while simultaneously bullying his male students, and his frequent lies destroy his colleagues’ careers even as they bring him success. Burgess calls The History Man ‘a disturbing and accurate portrayal of campus life in the late sixties and early seventies.’

Malcolm Bradbury was born in 1932. He wrote six novels, of which The History Man is the most well-known, having been adapted for the screen in 1981. He also wrote a novella, a collection of short stories, several well-respected books of literary criticism and many scripts for television. He also set up the famous MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, which launched the careers of Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro among others. He was knighted for services to literature in 2000 and died the same year at the age of 68.

Joseph Williams is finishing a PhD at the University of East Anglia, researching the creative, critical and educational work of Malcolm Bradbury, Lorna Sage, David Lodge, and the journal Critical Quarterly. He has taught at UEA and now teaches for the Workers Educational Association, most recently a course on Ulysses. As a reviewer he has written for Literary Review, The Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator, and Tribune, and in 2023 he was appointed reviews editor at Critical Quarterly.

Books mentioned in this episode

By Malcolm Bradbury:

• Eating People is Wrong (1959)
• Stepping Westward (1965)
• The Social Context of Modern English Literature (1971)
• The Modern American Novel (1983)
• The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988)
• The Modern British Novel (1993)

By others:

• Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)
• Loving by Henry Green (1945)
• The Great Tradition by F.R. Leavis (1948)
• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)
• The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis (1973)
• Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975)
• Gossip from the Forest by Thomas Keneally (1975)
• Changing Places by David Lodge (1975)
• How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge (1980)
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)
• Money by Martin Amis (1984)
• Small World by David Lodge (1984)
• White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985)
• Nice Work by David Lodge (1988)
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)

(This page contains affiliate links which help support the work of the Burgess Foundation)

In previous series of Ninety-Nine Novels, we learnt about authors including James Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, Elizabeth Bowen, Evelyn Waugh and Christopher Isherwood, among others. These episodes are available at your favourite place to get podcasts.

You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess’s list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to this podcast below or on your audio platform of choice (Apple Podcasts / Soundcloud / Spotify/ YouTube), or use the streaming links below.

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective.

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