I went to see Anthony Burgess in the aftermath of A Clockwork Orange. I can’t remember exactly when: but I have the impression that the movie had come out, had incited vociferous opposition, and Burgess was anxious to ‘put things right.’ He was staying in Grosvenor House hotel – or, maybe, the Dorchester: anyhow one […]

Anthony Burgess often worked with visual artists, most notably with novels The Eve of St Venus (1964) and A Vision of Battlements (1965), both of which were illustrated by Edward Pagram. Other works, such as Beard’s Roman Women (1976) and Shakespeare (1970) were illustrated with photographs and, in the case of his biography of Shakespeare, […]

It is unusual for a literary archive to contain such a wide range of items as those which appear in the Burgess Foundation’s collection. One of the most surprising discoveries is that there are several bottles of wine stored among the manuscript pages, photographs and books. More surprising still is that the wines have remained undrunk. The bottles which survive […]

Burgess was always courteous and kind; the fact we enjoyed each other’s writing helped a great deal. When Burgess’s early novels of what were later called The Malayan Trilogy were published, I had only recently returned from that exotic region myself. Not only were Time for a Tiger and the others extremely funny, Burgess showed […]

Many of the manuscripts in the archives at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation contain more than just words or music. Burgess was a prolific artist, drawing in the margins of typescripts, creating title pages for drafts of his novels, and sketching birthday cards for his son, Andrew. Burgess’s first published piece of work was not […]

Direct from a sold-out, award-winning London run, director Alexandra Spencer-Jones’s electrifying, critically-acclaimed stage production of A Clockwork Orange will premiere in New York City this fall in a limited Off-Broadway engagement at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). Jonno Davies, who led the London cast, will make his New York stage debut in the lead role of […]

I first met Anthony Burgess on Election Night 1966. As the then editor of the Penguin English Library I had commissioned him to write the introduction to one of the classic English novels. We met in the bar of the Café Royal. Burgess arrived with his then wife, Lynne. We chatted pleasantly for a while […]

Anthony Burgess’s copy of Italian Food by Elizabeth David is battered, ripped and stained, suggesting heavy use. It also contains scraps of paper which mark certain recipes, giving an insight into what Burgess may have been cooking. Burgess’s edition of Italian Food was published by Penguin in 1967, and there is internal evidence that he […]

Harold Harris, now dead, originally brought Burgess to Hutchinson for Beard’s Roman Women in about 1975 or 76. Possibly bought from an American publisher. In those days I don’t think Anthony was using a literary agent. My memory of this was that the photographer was very much part of the deal, and that it was […]

Many items in the collections at the Anthony Burgess Foundation reveal Burgess’s connections with other writers. Some of these connections are unexpected, such as his long correspondences with Angela Carter and Shirley Conran, but some, such as his friendship with the Italian novelist and semiologist Umberto Eco, seem to make more sense. Burgess’s and Eco’s […]