If you want to start a fight among British people, the quickest way is to ask them how to make a cup of tea. Should it be made with tea leaves in a pot, or with a tea bag in a mug? How long do you brew it before you drink it? Do you take […]
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. […]
Margaret Hilda Thatcher was born (as Margaret Roberts) 100 years ago, on 13 October 1925. In the years since she left Downing Street in 1990, her achievements and legacies have been widely discussed by political commentators. The extent to which she shaped both modern conservatism and New Labour is still debated by her political successors. […]
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 guest blog, Will Franken, who was shortlisted for the 2025 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize, reviews the Irwell Edition of The Clockwork Testament by Anthony Burgess, edited by Ákos Farkas and published by Manchester University Press. A question looms over the recent Irwell edition of Anthony Burgess’s The Clockwork Testament (1974), which is why have […]
In October 2024 I volunteered at the Burgess Foundation, where I assisted with a project to catalogue objects in the archive in preparation for digitisation. My academic background in History of Art has given me an interest in the politics of the museum, the ways in which visitors interact with a space, and how this […]
We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 Observer / Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. Now in its fourteenth year, the prize exists to recognise and reward new talent in writing about the arts. Its other purpose is to commemorate the long connection between Anthony Burgess and the Observer newspaper, to which […]
Introduction to One Man’s Chorus by Ben Forkner This memoir of Anthony Burgess appeared as the introduction to One Man’s Chorus: The Uncollected Writings, a selection of Burgess’s journalism, edited by Ben Forkner and published in New York by Carroll & Graf in 1998. We are grateful to Ben Forkner for kindly giving permission to reproduce […]
In 1969 Anthony Burgess started a month-long residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was an important period for Burgess in many ways, giving him his first extended visit to an American university campus, and it helped to develop the American influence on novels such as MF and Earthly Powers. While […]
Anthony Burgess was born on 25 February 1917. On the occasion of his 108th birthday, we look forward to future publications and other forthcoming Burgess-related events. It was Amol Rajan, the presenter of University Challenge and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, who spoke recently of ‘the great, late Anthony Burgess.’ Of his lateness […]