In this episode of the Burgess Foundation Podcast, Andrew Biswell talks to the writer and publisher Richard Cohen about his memories of working with Anthony Burgess in the 1980s.

Richard Cohen is the former publishing director of Hutchinson, and was instrumental in publishing some of Burgess’s best known novels of the 1980s, beginning with The Pianoplayers in 1986. Here, he recounts his meetings with Burgess and his wife Liana, his memories of working on Burgess’s fiction, and his stories of working in the wider publishing industry.

After working at Hutchinson, Richard moved to Hodder, and eventually set up his own company, Richard Cohen Books. During his time in publishing he worked with authors as varied as Jeffrey Archer, John Le Carré, Kingsley Amis, Fay Weldon. Sebastian Faulks, and Rudy Giuliani.

As a writer, Richard has published four books of non-fiction: By the Sword, a history of duelling and sword-fighting; Chasing the Sun, an epic history of the star that gives us life; How to Write Like Tolstoy, a guide for writers; and Making History, a history of historians from Herodotus to the present day.

Richard was also an Olympic fencer, competing in Munich, Montreal and Los Angeles between 1972 and 1984. He won both a gold and bronze medal for fencing at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

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