Anthony Burgess was one of Manchester’s greatest cultural exports. Born in Manchester in 1917, he spent the Second World War in Gibraltar and witnessed the final days of British colonialism in Malaya. In the 1970s he lived in Malta, Italy and New York, before settling in Monaco, Switzerland and the south of France. He died in London in 1993.

This exhibition examines how Burgess’s experiences of travel changed his ambitions as a novelist. Objects from the archive of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, including photographs, musical instruments, sculptures and multi-lingual manuscripts, will bring Burgess’s global journey to life, and trace his artistic development from British novelist to international man of letters.

Anthony Burgess: The Writer and His World will open on May 16th 2013 with a free public lecture by the exhibition’s curator, Graham Foster. He will discuss Burgess’s as an internationalist writer, examining his reputation alongside those of his contemporaries, such as Vladimir Nabokov, Umberto Eco and Thomas Pynchon. The talk explores the literary consequences of expatriation, and considers Burgess’s place within a tradition of writers who have attempted to transcend their linguistic origins.

Graham Foster’s work with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation is supported by MMU and a Cultural Engagement Fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.