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. […]

Anthony Burgess wrote this essay for the New York Times in 1970, the year in which his Shakespeare biography was published. After completing a lecture tour of Europe and the United States, he was teaching at Princeton University. I’ve spent the last couple of years, off and on, in two worlds simultaneously — imaginatively in […]

Daniel Felsenfeld will compose a new work for 2025, based on an unpublished Anthony Burgess poem. The American composer Daniel Felsenfeld (b. 1970) has been invited to create a new work for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble, based on a poem by Anthony Burgess (1917-1993). Commissioned by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, the piece will be […]

John Barth, who died on 2 April 2024 at the age of 93, was at the forefront of experimental literature in the 1960s and beyond. Even before the word ‘postmodernism’ was widely used, Barth attempted to diagnose the state of literature in the post-war period and articulated ways for writers to overcome what he described […]

In this episode of the Burgess Foundation Podcast, Andrew Biswell explores The Devil Prefers Mozart, a new collection of Anthony Burgess’s essays on music, with the book’s editor, Paul Phillips. The Devil Prefers Mozart: On Music and Musicians, covers classical, modern and operatic works, as well as jazz, pop, heavy metal and punk. This episode […]

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 […]

In this birthday blog post, we consider some of the anniversaries celebrated by Anthony Burgess in his literature and music. 25 February is the 107th anniversary of Anthony Burgess’s birth in Harpurhey, north Manchester. His original name was John Anthony Burgess Wilson. As he writes in Little Wilson and Big God, the first volume of […]

In this episode of the Burgess Foundation Podcast, we’re exploring the making of the new documentary film, A Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy, with the directors Elisa Mantin and Benoit Felici. A Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy, is the first new documentary to focus on Burgess since The Burgess Variations in 1999. Drawing on archive footage, startling new animations, […]

A new selection of Burgess’s essays about music will be published on 25 January. Music surrounded Burgess throughout his early years in Manchester. He came from a family of musicians: his mother had been a music-hall singer, and his father played piano in pubs, music halls and silent cinemas. In his book about music and […]

Researcher Sam Richardson writes about volunteering at the Burgess Foundation (summer/autumn 2023) For the past five months I have been volunteering weekly at the Burgess Foundation’s Archive as part of the project to catalogue the object collection. Having recently completed my undergraduate studies in History, the role offered me a unique opportunity to gain relevant […]