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.

Ninety-Nine Novels Podcast

Burgess Foundation Podcasts

Each year the International Anthony Burgess Foundation invites a guest speaker to deliver a lecture on an aspect of Anthony Burgess's life and work. Lively and engaging, the talks have covered all kinds of subjects - A Clockwork Orange, Malaysian literature, journalism, personal reminiscences of Burgess himself - and have been a highlight of the annual Manchester Literature Festival.

The annual Anthony Burgess lectures

Listen to leading commentators speak on the literature and music of the 20th century. Subjects include Updike, Hemingway, Priestley, Spark and plenty of Burgess.

Talks on literature and music

Some of the best novelists writing today read from and discuss their fiction, with contributions from Howard Jacobson, Sarah Hall, Michel Faber, Rachel Cusk, Chuck Palahniuk and many more.

Fiction writers on their work

In this episode, we are exploring Anthony Burgess’s interest in film, both as a consumer and a screenwriter. We follow Burgess’s life from his early years as a cinema-goer in Manchester through to his first trips to Hollywood, where he wrote screenplays on subjects as varied as Mary Queen of Scots, the end of the Earth, William Shakespeare and the wizard Merlin. Along the way, we’ll hear recordings of Burgess talking about the influence of film on his work and his own experiences of working in the film industry.

Written and narrated by Graham Foster.

For more information about Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support the work of the Burgess Foundation, visit www.anthonyburgess.org

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Anthony Burgess At The Movies

To mark the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange we’re examining Burgess’s relationship with the director.

In part four of our series, Andrew Biswell of the Burgess Foundation speaks to David Mikics, a Moores Distinguished Professor in the English Department of the University of Houston, about Kubrick's working practices, the importance of his films, and his Jewish identity.

David's book, Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker, is published by Yale University Press and out now. For more information visit: https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300224405

For more information about Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support the work of the Burgess Foundation, visit: www.anthonyburgess.org

Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick - Part Four: American Filmmaker

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 episode, Graham Foster of the Burgess Foundation talks to novelist David Morrell about Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth.

Giles Goat-Boy is simultaneously one of the most revered and complex postmodern novels of the 1960s, and a strange patchwork of allegories, from the Bible to the events of the Cold War. Burgess describes the book as a 'work that extends the scope of the novel - or rather reminds it of the scope it has lost, along with a whimsical fantasticality best exemplified in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.'

David Morrell is best known for his novel First Blood, which introduced the world to John Rambo, later played by Sylvester Stallone in a series of films. He completed his PhD thesis on the novels of John Barth, which was later published as John Barth: An Introduction. More recently he has written a series of crime novels featuring the famed opium-eater Thomas de Quincy. This trilogy, beginning with Murder as a Fine Art, is available now from Mulholland Books. John Barth: An Introduction is currently available as an ebook.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

By John Barth:

The Sot-Weed Factor (1960)

Lost in the Funhouse (1968)

The Tidewater Tales (1987)

By others:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (1949)

The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan (1936)

'Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way' in Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace (1989)

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)

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LINKS:

David Morrell's website: https://davidmorrell.net

David Morrell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_davidmorrell

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: https://nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth

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 episode, Will Carr of the Burgess Foundation talks to writer and academic Alison Arant about Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.

Published in 1952, Wise Blood is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel and shows many of the themes that would come to characterise her short but extraordinary career. Set in the American South, and dealing with a cast of grotesques, it is a novel of complex religious themes and has come to be known as a classic of twentieth century literature.

Alison Arant is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. Her research focusses on the American South, African American literature and women’s literature. Her most recent publication is Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor, which she edited with Jordan Colfer. This collection examines new theoretical approaches to O’Connor’s work and interrogates established views of her fiction and legacy. It is available now from the University Press of Mississippi.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

By Flannery O'Connor:

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (1957)

Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965)

'A Good Man is Hard to Find' in The Complete Short Stories (1971)

By others:

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (1980)

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)

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LINKS:

Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor at University Press of Mississippi: https://bit.ly/ReconsideringFlanneryOConnor

The Andalusia Institute Website: https://www.gcsu.edu/andalusiainstitute

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: http://nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

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 episode, Graham Foster of the Burgess Foundation talks to writer and academic Michael Mitchell about Heartland by Sir Wilson Harris.

Published in 1964, Heartland is a complex and experimental novel set in the rainforests of Guyana. The story follows Zachariah Stevenson as he ventures beyond the treeline and succumbs to madness. Harris’s writing is as dense as the forest it describes and the novel blends poetry and prose as Stevenson begins to question the boundaries between the living and the dead.

Michael Mitchell is a lecturer at the University of Paderborn in Germany, and an Honorary Fellow at the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick. He has written extensively on postcolonial literature, especially the works of Sir Wilson Harris. He has recently written introductions to the Wilson Harris novels Ascent to Omai, The Eye of the Scarecrow, and Heartland, all published by Peepal Tree Press.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Sir Wilson Harris:

The Palace of the Peacock (1960)

The Black Marsden: A Tabula Rasa Comedy (1972)

Companions of the Day and Night (1975)

Jonestown (1996)

The Dark Jester (2001)

The Mask of the Beggar (2003)

The Ghost of Memory (2006)

By others:

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

The Secret of the Golden Flower by Lü Dongbin (trans. by Richard Wilhem, 1929)

Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot (1941)

Watt by Samuel Beckett (1953)

My Bones and My Flute by Edgar Mittelholzer (1955)

Wilson Harris: A Philosophical Approach by C.L.R. James (1965)

Darkness Visible by William Golding (1979)

Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee (1980)

Decolonising the Mind by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1986)

The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin (1992)

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1993)

Our Lady of Demerara by David Dabydeen (2004)

The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim by Marcia Douglas (2016)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (2019)

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LINKS:

Micheal Mitchell's obituary of Wilson Harris in the Guardian: https://bit.ly/WilsonHarrisObituary

Wilson Harris at Peepal Tree Press: https://www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/wilson-harris

New edition of Palace of the Peacock at Faber: https://bit.ly/PalaceOfThePeacock

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: https://nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Heartland by Wilson Harris

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 episode, Graham Foster of the Burgess Foundation talks to writer and academic Simon Malpas about Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

Published in 1973, Gravity’s Rainbow has become one of the most revered American novels of the post-war period. It’s a hard novel to summarise, the plot being a complicated tangle of characters and situations, self-referential twists and historical detail, riotous humour and pointed satire. In his review of Gravity’s Rainbow in Ninety-Nine Novels, Anthony Burgess describes it as ‘the war book to end them all’, saying that it describes the obscenity of war in a way that was not available to the poets and novelists writing about the First World War.

Simon Malpas is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Edinburgh University, and has written an introduction to the work of Thomas Pynchon with Andrew Taylor which helps demystifying many of the themes and philosophies running through Pynchon’s novels: Thomas Pynchon by Simon Malpas and Andrew Taylor is published by Manchester University Press and out now.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Thomas Pynchon:

V (1963)

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)

Mason and Dixon (1997)

Inherent Vice (2009)

Bleeding Edge (2013)

By others:

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

MF by Anthony Burgess (1971)

Napoleon Symphony by Anthony Burgess (1974)

The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell (1975)

Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney (1975)

Beard's Roman Women by Anthony Burgess (1976)

1985 by Anthony Burgess (1978)

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LINKS:

Thomas Pynchon by Simon Malpas and Andrew Taylor at Manchester University Press: https://bit.ly/ThomasPynchonAtMUP

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: https://nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

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.


For the first episode in our new series, Graham Foster of the Burgess Foundation talks to Enrico Terrinoni about James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, one of the first novels on Burgess's list.


Finnegans Wake has a dreamlike, circular narrative, which ostensibly tells the story of the pub landlord Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and his family, who live in Dublin’s Chapelizod neighbourhood. But it is so much more than that, and threatens to escape the categorisation of literature itself.


Enrico Terrinoni is Professor of English Literature at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia, and Professor of Translation at IULM University of Milan. He has held many fellowship at universities in Ireland and America, including University College Dublin and Notre Dame University. As a translator into Italian, he has worked on authors such as George Orwell, Muriel Spark, Brendan Behan, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw. He translated Finnegans Wake into Italian with Fabio Pedone, and in 2021 published the first ever bilingual annotated translation of Ulysses. He is currently working on a book about the “quantum theory of literature” and “probabilistic interpretation” and editing, with Declan Kiberd and Catherine Wilsdon, a book on Ulysses entitled The Book about Everything which will be published in June 2022 by Head of Zeus.


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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:


By James Joyce:


Ulysses (1922)


The Shorter Finnegans Wake (edited by Anthony Burgess, 1966)


Finnegans Wake Audiobook (narrated by Barry McGovern and Marcella Riordan, 2021)


By others:


Here Comes Everybody by Anthony Burgess (1965)


The Egyptian Book of the Dead (c. 1250BCE)


The Books at the Wake by James S. Atherton (1959)


Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville (1853)


Lanark by Alasdair Gray (1981)


1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray (1984)


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LINKS:


Enrico Terrinoni's bilingual Ulysses at Bompiani: bit.ly/UlisseAtBompiani


Enrico Terrinoni's book about Joyce in Rome, Su tutti i vivi e i morti: Joyce a Roma at Feltrinelli Editore: bit.ly/JoyceInRome


The Book About Everything, edited by Enrico Terrinoni, Declan Kiberd and Catherine Wilsdon at Head of Zeus (pre-order): bit.ly/BookAboutEverything


International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org


The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: nodicecollective.com


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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.


If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

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 episode, Graham Foster of the Burgess Foundation talks to Avril Horner about The Bell by Iris Murdoch, a novel Burgess calls ‘intensely poetic’ and ‘beautifully organised’.

First published in 1958, The Bell tells the story of Dora Greenfield, an impulsive young woman, who moves with her husband to a lay religious community in the grounds of Imber Abbey. There, she discovers an old bell at the bottom of a lake, and sets in motion events that will expose secret desires and lead to tragic consequences.

Avril Horner is Emeritus Professor of English at Kingston University, London. She specialises in women’s writing and gothic literature and has published widely on authors such as Daphne du Maurier, Edith Wharton, and Iris Murdoch. Her latest book is Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch 1934-1995, which she edited with Anne Rowe, with whom she has also edited books on Iris Murdoch and morality and the texts and contexts of Iris Murdoch. She is currently working, with Sue Zlosnik on the book Comic Gothic, which will be released by Edinburgh University Press in 2023.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Iris Murdoch:

Under the Net (1954)

The Flight from the Enchanter (1956)

The Sandcastle (1957)

A Severed Head (1961)

The Unicorn (1963)

The Time of the Angels (1966)

The Nice and the Good (1968)

A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970)

The Sovereignty of Good (1970)

The Black Prince (1973)

The Sea, The Sea (1978)

Nuns and Soldiers (1980)

The Book and the Brotherhood (1987)

The Message to the Planet (1989)

Existentialists and Mystics (1997)

By others:

The Need for Roots by Simone Weil (1952)

The Notebooks of Simone Weil (1954)

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns (1954)

The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns (1962)

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (2016)

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LINKS

Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch 1934-1995, ed by Avril Horner and Anne Rowe: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1091339/living-on-paper/9781448104925.html

The Iris Murdoch Society: https://irismurdochsociety.org.uk

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Bell by Iris Murdoch

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 episode, Will Carr of the Burgess Foundation talks to academic and writer Marius Hentea about Henry Green’s 1939 novel Party Going, a strange and mysterious novel which deals with the complex social interactions of socialites and workers alike. It is by turns comic, lyrical and expressive, but is not necessarily easy to interpret.

Marius Hentea is Professor of English Literature at the University of Gothenburg. He has previously studied and taught at universities in France, Belgium, America and the UK. His main areas of research are modernism and the avant garde and he has published two books: Henry Green at the Limits of Modernism and Tata Dada: The Real Life and Celestial Adventures of Tristan Tzara. He is currently researching authorship and treason at the beginning of the Cold War.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Henry Green:

Living (1929)

Pack My Bag: A Self-Portrait (1940)

Loving (1949)

By others:

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (1930)

Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell (1931)

Correction by Thomas Bernhard (1975)

The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative by Frank Kermode (1979)

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LINKS:

Henry Green at the Limits of Modernism by Marius Hentea (Sussex Academic Press): https://bit.ly/HenteaOnGreen

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Party Going by Henry Green

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 episode, we talk to writer James Walker about Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe.

The novel follows Arthur Seaton, a rebellious young factory worker who works all week so he can spend the weekends drinking a fraternising with married women. Sillitoe’s writing celebrates the working-class spirit of Arthur, and is a vital, alive depiction of the Nottingham streets in which he lives.

Alan Sillitoe was born in Nottingham in 1928. He took up writing, living in France and Spain where he began writing Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. He died in 2010 after writing over 70 works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s stories.

James Walker is a writer who specialises in the fiction of Nottingham. He is a former member of the Alan Sillitoe Committee and created The Sillitoe Trail, a multimedia digital platform in which he explored the enduring relevance of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. His current project is Whatever People Say I Am, a comic series challenging stereotypes.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Alan Sillitoe:

A Man of His Time (2004)

By others:

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (1960)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

The Killing Jar by Nicola Monaghan (2006)

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LINKS:

Sillitoe's Final Interview (by James Walker): https://bit.ly/SillitoeFinalInterview

James Walker's Nottingham Essay on BBC Radio 3 (YouTube): https://bit.ly/WalkerOnBBCRadio

The Sillitoe Trail: http://www.sillitoetrail.com

Dawn of the Unread, an online graphic novel celebrating Nottingham's literary history, by James Walker: http://www.dawnoftheunread.com

The Loneliness of the Lockdown Runner, an Instagram project by James Walker: https://www.instagram.com/lonelinessofthelockdownrunner/

James Walker's comic series Whatever People Say I Am: http://www.whateverpeoplesayiam.co.uk

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective, who can be found here: nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Saturday Night & Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe

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 episode, the Burgess Foundation's Graham Foster talks to novelist Kim Sherwood about Goldfinger by Ian Fleming, the seventh novel in the James Bond series.

Published in 1959, it follows James Bond as he investigates the activities of the villainous Auric Goldfinger, a man obsessed with wealth and determined to steal the gold reserves of the United States. In his review in Ninety-Nine Novels, Burgess declared that Fleming's writing 'raised the standard of the popular story’, and he argued against the notion that Fleming was not a literary writer.

Ian Fleming was born in 1908, and worked as a journalist before the Second World War, during which he served in the Naval Intelligence Division, a posting which directly inspired the creation of James Bond. He wrote all of the Bond stories at his house, Goldeneye, in Jamaica, and while the spy thrillers dominated his writing career, he also wrote Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. He died in 1964 at the age of 56.  

Kim Sherwood is a novelist and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. She published her first novel, Testament, in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award the following year. Her latest novel is Double or Nothing, the first in a new trilogy which follows a group of Double O agents as they search for a missing James Bond, is available now from HarperCollins.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Ian Fleming:

From Russia, with Love (1957)

'Risico' in For Your Eyes Only (1960)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)

Thrilling Cities (1963)

By others:

Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (1934)

Venetia by Georgette Heyer (1958)

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LINKS:

Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood at HarperCollins: https://bit.ly/SherwoodDoubleO

Kim Sherwood on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kimtsherwood

Kim Sherwood on Instagram: www.instagram.com/kimtsherwood

Ian Fleming Website: https://www.ianfleming.com

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess's Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor. It is performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

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You can join the conversation and tell us which 100th book you would add to Burgess's list by using the hashtag #99Novels on Twitter.

If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ninety-Nine Novels: Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

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 episode, Andrew Biswell explores Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel A Single Man, a novel Burgess calls ‘a fine piece of plain writing that haunts the memory.’ Guiding him through the novel is Isherwood's authorised biographer and editor of his letters and diaries, Katherine Bucknell.

A Single Man tells the story of George, an English professor living in suburban Los Angeles and grieving the death of his lover, Jim. Set over one day, in which George meets a variety of people who inspire him to rediscover the joys of life, the novel is a deeply moving study of grief and a sensitive portrait of the aftermath of a committed gay relationship, published at a time when notions such as same-sex marriage were controversial and prohibited by law.

Christopher Isherwood was born near Stockport, England, in 1904. In 1929, he travelled to Weimar Berlin with W.H. Auden, which provided material for a sequence of novels, most notably Goodbye to Berlin, which provided the basis for the hit musical Cabaret. Isherwood emigrated to the United States in 1939, first to New York with Auden, and then to California, where he worked as a screenwriter and lecturer. In 1953, he met Don Bachardy and they formed a lifelong relationship. Isherwood died in 1986.

Katherine Bucknell is a biographer, editor and novelist. She has edited three volumes of Isherwood’s diaries, and The Animals, a volume of letters between Isherwood and Bachardy, which is also the basis of an eleven-episode podcast hosted by Katherine. Her novels include Leninsky Prospekt, Canarino, What You Will, and + 1. She is the founder of the W.H. Auden Society and the director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. She is currently working on a major new biography of Christopher Isherwood.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Christopher Isherwood:

Goodbye to Berlin (1939)
Prater Violet (1945)
Down There on a Visit (1962)
A Meeting by the River (1967)
Christopher and His Kind (1976)

By others:

Bhagavad Vita (c. 200 BCE)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1879-80)
Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy (1911)
Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham (1944)

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LINKS

Christopher Isherwood: Diaries, Volume One: 1939-1960 (edited by Katherine Bucknell) at Blackwells (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Christopher-Isherwood-Volume-1-by-Christopher-Isherwood/9780099555827?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (edited by Katherine Bucknell) at Blackwells (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Animals-by-Christopher-Isherwood-Don-Bachardy/9781784700829?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

Katherine Bucknell's Website: http://www.katherinebucknell.com

The Christopher Isherwood Foundation: https://www.isherwoodfoundation.org

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, and is performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

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 episode, we’re donning our snap-brim fedoras and trench-coats to investigate The Long Good-bye by Raymond Chandler with our special guest biographer Tom Williams.

The Long Good-bye is Raymond Chandler’s sixth novel, and features the further adventures of his most famous creation, private detective Philip Marlowe. After being contacted by his friend, Terry Lennox, Marlowe finds himself embroiled in the aftermath of the murder of Lennox’s wife, Sylvia. Seemingly an open-and-shut case, the mystery surrounding her death grows, and Marlowe traverses Los Angeles in search of answers from a range of oddballs and criminals.

Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and grew up in Ireland and London. He worked as a civil servant and a journalist in London. In 1912 he returned to America. He introduced the world to Philip Marlowe in his 1939 novel The Big Sleep, and six further novels. He died in 1959.

Tom Williams is a biographer and writer. He was born in Newcastle and read English at University College in London. He has worked in publishing and publishing technology and, in 2012, wrote A Mysterious Something in the Light: A Biography of Raymond Chandler. He currently lives in Washington DC.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Raymond Chandler:

The Big Sleep (1939)
Farewell My Lovely (1940)
Playback (1958)
Poodle Springs (with Robert B. Parker, 1989)

Philip Marlowe Novels:

The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black/John Banville (2014)
Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (2018)
The Goodbye Coast by Joe Ide (2022)

By others:

The Perry Mason Series by Erle Stanley Gardner (1933-73)
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (1949)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
Collected Poems by TS Elliot (1963)
Cocksure by Mordecai Richler (1968)
Bomber by Len Deighton (1970)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)
The Inspector Rebus Series by Ian Rankin (1987-2022)
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin (1997)
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black/John Banville (2006)
The Slough House/Jackson Lamb Series by Mick Herron (2010-22)
The Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling (2013-22)

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LINKS

A Mysterious Something in the Light: Raymond Chandler, A Life by Tom Williams (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/A-Mysterious-Something-in-the-Light-by-Tom-Williams/9781613736784?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

Tom Williams on Twitter and Instagram: @twilliams81

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, and is performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Long Good-bye by Raymond Chandler

In this episode, Andrew Biswell talks to 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. 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 Carre, Kingsley Amis, Fay Wheldon. Sebastian Faulks, and Rudy Giuliani.

As a writer, Richard has published four books of non-fiction: By the Sword, a history of swordplay; Chasing the Sun, an epic history of the Sun; 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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LINKS

Making History: Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past by Richard Cohen (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Making-History-by-Richard-Cohen/9781474615792?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/By-the-Sword-by-Richard-Cohen/9781847396709?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star that Gives Us Life by Richard Cohen (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Chasing-the-Sun-by-Richard-Cohen/9781416526124?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/How-to-Write-Like-Tolstoy-by-Richard-Cohen/9781786071651?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Subscribe to the Burgess Foundation's free newsletter for weekly news, event listings and writing by and about Anthony Burgess: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

Publishing Anthony Burgess with Richard Cohen

In this episode, Andrew Biswell explores Anthony Burgess’s new collection of essays on music, The Devil Prefers Mozart, with editor Paul Phillips.

The Devil Prefers Mozart is the first collection of Anthony Burgess’s essays on music and musicians. This wide-ranging anthology covers classical, modern and operatic works, as well as jazz, pop, heavy metal and punk. This episode of the podcast discusses the versatility of Burgess’s writing on music, the different sorts of essays in the new collection and what Burgess really thought of the work of the Beatles.

Paul Phillips is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, and author A Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess, the definitive study of Burgess’s music and its relationship to his writing. Paul has contributed essays to six books on Burgess, including the Norton Critical Edition of A Clockwork Orange, and is an Honorary Patron of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and its Music Advisor.

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LINKS

The Devil Prefers Mozart: On Music and Musicians by Anthony Burgess, edited by Paul Phillips at Carcanet: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781800173088

The Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess by Paul Phillips (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/A-Clockwork-Counterpoint-The-Music-and-Literature-of-Anthony-Burgess-by-Phillips-Paul-Jr/9780719072055?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Anthony Burgess News, our free weekly Substack newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The Devil Prefers Mozart: Anthony Burgess on Music with Paul Phillips

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 episode, we’re exploring the complex, controversial and language-rich novel Darconville’s Cat by Alexander Theroux with our guest, writer George Salis.

The novel tells the story of Alaric Darconville, an English instructor at an all-girls’ college in Virginia. He is intensely romantic and intellectual, and eventually falls in love with one of his students. He views their relationship as a great love affair, but his romanticism blinds him to reality. Eventually, he meets the mysterious Dr Crucifer, an unrepentant misogynist who attempt to brainwash the younger man to his way of thinking.

Alexander Theroux was born in Massachusetts in 1939, and is the author of four novels, four collections of poetry, three collections of short stories and several works of non-fiction. His most recent publication is the collection of poetry, Godfather Drosselmeier’s Tears & Other Poems. 

George Salis is a novelist, literary critic and editor. His novel Sea Above, Sun Below was praised by Alexander Theroux as having ‘electricity on every page’. He is the editor of The Colliderscope, an online publication that celebrates innovative literature, and the host of its companion podcast. He has recently completed his maximalist novel Morphological Echoes.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Alexander Theroux

Three Wogs, including 'Theroux Metaphrastes' (1972)
Laura Warholic (2007)

By others:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Girls at Play by Paul Theroux (1969)
Plus by Joseph McElroy (1977)
Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel (1999)

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LINKS

Sea Above, Sun Below by George Salis at Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Above-Below-George-Salis/dp/B0991DVSVD

The Collidescope, George Salis's website: https://thecollidescope.com

The Collidescope Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-collidescope-podcast/id1585679447

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux

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 episode, Graham Foster discovers Nadine Gordimer’s 1966 novel The Late Bourgeois World, with guest Jeanne-Marie Jackson.

The Late Bourgeois World tells the story of Johannesburg suburbanite Liz Van Den Sandt, who finds out her ex-husband has committed suicide after betraying his comrades in the burgeoning rebellion against apartheid. Though she lives a privileged life with her new partner, she begins to feel drawn towards political action. When she is asked to help the Black Nationalist movement with their finances, she has to choose between her own safe but boring life and the exciting but risky act of rebellion. But does her ex-husband’s failure prove the futility of political action?

Nadine Gordimer was born in the Transvaal region of South Africa in 1923. She moved to Johannesburg in 1948 and lived in the city for the rest of her life. She published her first novel, The Lying Days, in 1953 and went on to publish 14 more novels and over 20 books of short stories. Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. She died in 2014.

Jeanne-Marie Jackson is Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focusses on African literature and intellectual history. Her first book, South African Literature’s Russian Soul: Narrative Forms of Global Isolation was published by Bloomsbury in 2015. Her most recent book, The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing was published by Princeton University Press in 2021. She has written for the New York Times, New Left Review, and The Conversation, among others.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Nadine Gordimer:

The Lying Days (1953)
Burger's Daughter (1979)
July's People (1981)
'Living in the Interregnum' in The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places (1988)

By others:

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1862)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)
The Ripley Series by Patricia Highsmith (1955-91)
The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer (1959)
Muriel at Metropolitan by Miriam Tlali (1975)
Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith (1977)
Amandla by Miriam Tlali (1980)
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (1999)
The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (2018)
The History of Man by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (2019)
The Quality of Mercy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (2022)

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LINKS

South African Literature’s Russian Soul: Narrative Forms of Global Isolation by Jeanne-Marie Jackson: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/south-african-literatures-russian-soul-9781472592996/

The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing by Jeanne-Marie Jackson: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691186443/the-african-novel-of-ideas

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

The Burgess Foundation's free Substack newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Late Bourgeois World by Nadine Gordimer

Professor Andrew Biswell discusses the life and work of playwright JB Priestley, one of Anthony Burgess's favourite writers, in a lecture given at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in March 2013.

Andrew Biswell on Anthony Burgess and JB Priestley

In 60 books and 27 novels, John Updike earned a reputation as one of modern America’s greatest men of letters. In this authoritative new biography, the first following the writer’s death in 2009, Adam Begley shows us the inner life of a man who saw himself as a literary spy in small-town New England, seeking to capture ‘middleness with all its grits, bumps and anonymities.’ Begley explores how the events in Updike’s life shaped him and reveals a deeply complex nature full of contradictions – a gentle soul with a vicious wit; a gregarious charmer who was ruthlessly competitive. Formerly Books Editor for the New York Observer and a Guggenheim Fellow, Begley’s writing regularly appears in major newspapers and journals on both sides of the Atlantic. Critic Janet Malcolm said of the book ‘this is literary biography at its highest level of truth.’ 

Introduced by Ian McGuire. This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundatino in October 22014 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival. 

Adam Begley on John Updike

It’s been 50 years since Norman Mailer described William S. Burroughs as ‘the only American novelist living who may conceivably be possessed by genius.’ Radical, relentlessly political and fiercely experimental, with the publication of The Naked Lunch in 1959 and its censorship for obscenity, Burroughs became one of the godfathers of 60s counterculture. And his wild life was every bit as shocking as his work. In the seminal Beat writer’s centenary year, Burroughs’ friend and collaborator Barry Miles has published an authoritative new biography that shows us the mercurial man behind the cult figure and reveals his struggles with relationships, addiction and the conventions of a society in which he was a natural outsider. The Times said of the book: ‘The life of this disturbing and disturbed man has never been so perfectly told.’ Miles was in conversation with Doug Field.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in October 014 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Barry Miles on his biography of William S. Burroughs

Ben Marcus is the acclaimed author of five books of fiction: Notable American Women, The Father Costume, The Age of Wire and String, The Flame Alphabet and Leaving the Sea, described as 'thoroughly and perversely entertaining' (New York Times) and as tackling 'deep-held, universal terrors and anxieties in his singular way' (Time Out). His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, The Paris Review, The Believer, The New York Times, Salon, McSweeney’s, Time and Conjunctions, among others. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, the fiction editor at The American Reader and associate professor creative writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Listen to him discuss his short story collection Leaving the Sea.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in April 2014.

Ben Marcus reads from 'Leaving The Sea'

We were delighted to welcome Chuck Palahniuk to launch his new novel Doomed. Madison Spencer, the liveliest dead girl in the universe, continues the afterlife adventure begun in the bestselling Damned. Turning bad taste into a major art-form, Doomed is a dark and twisted apocalyptic vision from this provocative storyteller. Chuck Palahniuk's trangressional fiction and satirical horror stories include the novels Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Fight Club, and his non-fiction includes the collection Stranger Than Fiction. Introduced by Graham Foster.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in November 2013.

Chuck Palahniuk on his novel 'Doomed'

For the 2014 Burgess Lecture, we were delighted to welcome acclaimed writer Blake Morrison to Manchester to talk about Anthony Burgess’s journalism. Anthony Burgess wrote many hundreds of articles, reviews and opinion pieces for newspapers and magazines in a journalistic career spanning more than fifty years. His writing was characteristically provocative and informative, entertaining and extravagant, always readable, never dull, and extraordinary in its range, erudition and energy. 

Blake Morrison has written for many newspapers himself, and was literary editor of The Observer and the Independent on Sunday before becoming a full-time author in 1995. His many books include South Of The River, The Last Weekend and the memoirs And When Did You Last See Your Father? and Things My Mother Never Told Me. Blake Morrison discusses Burgess’s work, and the ways in which newspaper culture has changed. Introduced by Matthew Frost.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in October 2014 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Blake Morrison delivers the 2014 Burgess Lecture

Colin Bateman’s first book, 'Divorcing Jack', won the Betty Trask Prize, his 2009 'Mystery Man' was a “Richard and Judy Summer Read” and, in 2010, he won the Crimefest Last Laugh Award for 'The Day of the Jack Russell'. He has also written books for children, including 'Reservoir Pups', and his TV and film credits are extensive – he created the Murphy’s Law series, which stars James Nesbitt, and adapted Divorcing Jack for a film featuring Rachel Griffiths and David Thewlis. Listen to him reading from his new novel 'Nine Inches'.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in October 2011 in partnership with the Writing School at MMU.

Colin Bateman reads from his novel 'Nine Inches'

For the annual Burgess Lecture we were delighted to welcome Dominic Sandbrook for an exploration of A Clockwork Orange and the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Dominic Sandbrook is the acclaimed author of the books Never Had It So Good, White Heat and State of Emergency, which, along with his new book Seasons in the Sun, has been adapted for television.

As part of our celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Anthony Burgess’ most famous novel we asked Dominic to talk about its social and historical contexts. He touched on the rise of milk bars, Teddy Boys and youth culture in the late 1950s and early 1960s; the background to the UK release of Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, which appeared amidst the 1972 strikes and a few weeks before Bloody Sunday; and everything in between. Introduced by Andrew Biswell.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in October 2012 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.


Dominic Sandbrook delivers the 2012 Burgess Lecture

Ten Things I've Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler is a heart-wrenching and life-affirming novel that explores the relationship between fathers and daughters, as well as themes of rootlessness and homecoming. Sarah Butler lives in Manchester, and as well as writing runs a consultancy which develops literature and arts projects that explore and question our relationship to place. 

Emma Chapman's How To Be A Good Wife is a powerful and haunting novel full of menace. 'On the surface the book is a highly competent, creepy little chiller, but beneath, like a silent, bolted and half-dark room, there’s a much bigger, equally disconcerting story about the nature of feminine experience. It’s an accomplished debut from a writer who shows insight and emotional power.’ - Hilary Mantel. Emma Chapman was born in 1985 and grew up in Manchester. She lives in Perth, Western Australia. Introduced by Adam O'Riordan.

This event took place in 2013 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.

Emma Chapman and Sarah Butler launch their debut novels

We were delighted to welcome Dr Giuseppe Albano, curator of the Keats-Shelley house in Rome, to speak about Keats and Burgess. Using Burgess's ABBA ABBA as a starting point, Giuseppe's talk focuses on the re-imagining of Keats and Rome, who in his frail consumptive state had come to the city in the hope that the climate would alleviate his suffering. 

Giuseppe Albano is of Italian heritage and was born and raised in Scotland. Curator of the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, he is also the author of the preface to the Italian edition of ABBA ABBA (Robin Edizioni, 2012). Introduced by Andrew Biswell.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in 2014.

Giuseppe Albano on Anthony Burgess and John Keats

Three early-career writers share tales of young women forging their own bold and unconventional paths in life. Emma Jane Unsworth’s second novel, Animals, follows the filthy, riotous adventures of two best friends in Manchester and has been described by Caitlin Moran as ‘Withnail with girls.’ Anneliese Mackintosh’s first collection of semi-autobiographical short stories, Any Other Mouth, is a frank and funny account of sexual misadventure, bereavement and self-discovery in the vein of Miranda July. Zoe Pilger’s ruthlessly sharp debut novel, Eat My Heart Out, has been described as ‘like a foul-mouthed Nancy Mitford for the Gawker generation.’ The event also features music from singer-songwriter Karima Francis. Introduced by Katie Popperwell.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in 2014 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Emma Jane Unsworth, Zoe Pilger, Annelise Mackintosh and Karima Francis perform

Born in Manchester, Howard Jacobson is one of Britain’s most acclaimed and prolific novelists. He won the 2010 Man Booker prize for his novel, The Finkler Question as well as the Everyman Wodehouse Award for comic writing for The Mighty Waltzer. A gifted satirist, he’s written about everything from family, friendships and relationships to the death of publishing. 

His novel J is a dystopian thriller in the tradition of Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World. Set in a future where the past is a dangerous country, J is a love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying. Two people fall in love, not knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Are they acting of their own accord or have they been pushed into each other’s arms? And what is the momentous catastrophe – the event now referred to as What Happened, If It Happened – that dominates life in this world? Introduced by Matthew Frost.

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in October 2014 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Howard Jacobson reads from 'J'

We were delighted to welcome the influential author, broadcaster and commentator Jonathan Meades to the Burgess Foundation in October 2011 as part of the Manchester Literature Festival to talk about the life and work of Anthony Burgess, and his own memoir of the late 50s and early 60s. Listen to his pugnaciously erudite, unpredictably informative and characteristically amusing memories of interviewing Burgess in 1984, covering demands for drinks, colourblindness and ‘the comb-over’s comb-over’. Introduced by Andrew Biswell.

Jonathan Meades delivers the 2011 Burgess Lecture

Muriel Spark’s shrewd, unsentimental and hilarious novels are among the finest of the 20th Century. Perhaps best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark’s distinctive mix of realism, satire and allegory was hugely influential for a generation of writers. Martin Stannard – author of the acclaimed biography 'Muriel Spark' discusses her fascinating life and work. Introduced by Andrew Biswell. 

This event took place at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in November 2014.

Martin Stannard on Muriel Spark

Michel Faber reads from his first new novel in 14 years. The Book of Strange New Things is an original and quietly powerful tale of love, faith, adventure, change and dystopia. Focused around a Christian missionary, it’s a momentous tale of humanity and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe. New York Times called Faber’s writing ‘wildly entertaining’ and the Guardian stated ‘This is a man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence.’ An award-winning writer, he has written eight books including novellas and short story collections. His novel, The Crimson Petal and the White, was adapted into a BBC4 drama and his electrifying debut, Under the Skin, was recently made into a film directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson. Introduced by Matthew Frost.

This event took place in October 2014 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Michel Faber and 'The Book Of Strange New Things'

Acclaimed novelist Tash Aw to Manchester talks about the life and work of Anthony Burgess and his influence on his writing. Tash Aw was brought up in Kuala Lumpur and is now based in London. Described by Doris Lessing as a master storyteller, his three award-winning novels of migrant experience in a changing world – The Harmony Silk Factory, Map of the Invisible World and this year’s Five Star Billionaire – have established him as one of the leading voices of south-east Asia writing today. Introduced by John McLeod.

This event took place in October 2013 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation as part of the Manchester Literature Festival. 



Tash Aw gives the 2013 Burgess Lecture

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 episode, Andrew Biswell talks to Brian Boyd about Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, which Anthony Burgess called ‘a brilliant confection’.

Pale Fire is unlike any other novel. The first section of the novel takes the form of a 999-line poem, by a murdered poet called John Shade. The second section concerns the discursive commentary and notes by Shade’s supposed editor, Charles Kinbote. Seemingly unconnected to the poem, Kinbote’s notes describe his belief that he is Charles the Beloved, the exiled king of a country called Zembla. Can this be true, or is Kinbote a fantasist? Does Shade’s poem really reference the revolution in Zembla? Is Shade even real? These are just some of the questions raised by this rich and puzzling novel.

Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg in 1899, and being of aristocratic heritage, was exiled from Russia when the Bolsheviks seized power. Having studied in Britain, he settled in America in 1940, lecturing in Russian literature at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and Cornell University in New York State. His novel Lolita, published in 1955, brought him fame, and was filmed by Stanley Kubrick, from Nabokov’s own screenplay, in 1962. Nabokov died in Switzerland in 1977.

Brian Boyd is University Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and one of the leading experts in Nabokov’s work. His writings about Nabokov include Nabokov’s Ada: The Place of Consciousness, Nabokov’s Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery, and two volumes of biography subtitled The Russian Years and The American Years. He is currently working on a biography of the philosopher Karl Popper, along with a follow-up to his On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction; a book on Shakespeare’s plays; two books on Lolita; and a continuation of his annotations, a chapter at a time, to Ada, already almost 2500 pages, with about 500 to go. He is also co-editing Nabokov’s Lectures on Russian Poetry, Prose, and Drama.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Vladimir Nabokov:

The Defense (1930)
Lolita (1955)
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969)
Transparent Things (1972)
'The Vane Sisters' in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1995)

By others:

Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux (1725)
Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
The Joy of Gay Sex by Edmund White (1977)
A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk (2015)

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LINKS

Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery by Brian Boyd: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Nabokovs-Pale-Fire-by-Brian-Boyd/9780691089577?a_aid=BurgessFoundation (affiliate link)

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

International Anthony Burgess Foundation Newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

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 episode, we’re learning about The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury, with our guest Joseph Williams.

The History Man tells the story of Howard Kirk, a sociology professor at a modern campus university. Howard is a strident and radical political voice on campus who dominates both his fellow lecturers and his students with his opinions and encourages sit-ins and protests for all manner of causes. Howard is also morally compromised: he has affairs with his female students while simultaneously bullying his male students, and his frequent lies destroy his colleagues’ careers even as they bring him success. Burgess calls The History Man ‘a disturbing and accurate portrayal of campus life in the late sixties and early seventies.’

Malcolm Bradbury was born in 1932. He wrote six novels, of which The History Man is the most well-known, having been adapted for the screen in 1981. He also wrote a novella, a collection of short stories, several well-respected books of literary criticism and many scripts for television. He also set up the famous MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, which launched the careers of Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro among others. He was knighted for services to literature in 2000 and died the same year at the age of 68.

Joseph Williams is finishing a PhD at the University of East Anglia, researching the creative, critical and educational work of Malcolm Bradbury, Lorna Sage, David Lodge, and the journal Critical Quarterly. He has taught at UEA and now teaches for the Workers Educational Association, most recently a course on Ulysses. As a reviewer he has written for Literary Review, The Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator, and Tribune, and in 2023 he was appointed reviews editor at Critical Quarterly. 

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Malcolm Bradbury:

Eating People is Wrong (1959)
Stepping Westward (1965)
The Social Context of Modern English Literature (1971)
The Modern American Novel (1983)
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988)
The Modern British Novel (1993)

By others:

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)
Loving by Henry Green (1945)
The Great Tradition by F.R. Leavis (1948)
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)
The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis (1973)
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975)
Gossip from the Forest by Thomas Keneally (1975)
Changing Places by David Lodge (1975)
How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge (1980)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)
Money by Martin Amis (1984)
Small World by David Lodge (1984)
White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985)
Nice Work by David Lodge (1988)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)

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LINKS

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Burgess Foundation Newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury

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 episode, we’re getting the intel on Catch-22 by Joseph Heller from our guest Spencer Morrison.

Catch-22 takes us back to the dying days of the Second World War and introduces us to Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier who is stationed on an island off the coast of Italy. Yossarian’s traumatic missions are contrasted with his life on the base, which is populated by various oddball airmen who all have their own agendas. They are overseen by commanding officers who are more concerned with abstract bureaucracy and arbitrary rules than the reality of the war. When Yossarian attempts to get out of flying any more missions he is faced with the most insidious rule of all, Catch-22, which states if an airman flies missions he is crazy and doesn’t have to, but if he doesn’t want to fly missions then he is sane and has to.

Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. In 1942, he joined the US Air Force and served as a bombardier on the Italian Front, his experiences informing Catch-22. His first published story appeared in Atlantic magazine in 1948 while he was working as a copywriter for an advertising firm. He went on to write seven novels, a collection of short stories, three plays, three screenplays and two volumes of autobiography. In the 1970s he worked alongside Anthony Burgess in the Creative Writing department at City College New York. He died in 1999.

Spencer Morrison is an assistant professor of English Language and Culture at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, where he specializes in post-WWII American literature. His writing has been published, or is forthcoming, in journals such as American Literary History, ELH, American Literature, and Genre, and he's currently completing a book manuscript on fifties and sixties American literature and culture that includes a chapter on Joseph Heller. 

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

By Joseph Heller:

Something Happened (1974)

By others:

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (1921)
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1932)
The Gallery by John Horne Burns (1947)
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948)
The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney (1950)
From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1951)
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (1952)
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)
The Organization Man by William H Whyte (1956)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
The Thin Red Line by James Jones (1962)
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty (1996)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2015)

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LINKS

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

The Burgess Foundation's free Substack newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

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 episode, Will Carr is joined by writer and academic Paul Fagan to discuss At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien.

At Swim-Two-Birds is narrated by a young undergraduate student who invents wild stories featuring a host of strange character. The novel consists of three of the student’s seemingly unlinked stories that introduce characters such as Furriskey who is a fictional character created by the equally fictional Trellis, a writer of Westerns. As the narrative progresses, the student’s characters seem to take on a life of their own, and the novel becomes an absurdist brew of Irish folklore, farce, and comedic satire.

Flann O’Brien was born Brian Ó Nualláin in County Tyrone, Ireland in 1911. After studying at University College Dublin he joined the Irish Civil Service, during which time he wrote novels in both English and Irish Gaelic, scripts for television and theatre, and newspaper columns as Myles na gCopaleen. He died in 1966.

Paul Fagan is a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow at Maynooth University, where he is working on the Irish Research Council project Celibacy in Irish Women's Writing, 1860s-1950s. He is a co-founder of the International Flann O’Brien Society, a founding general editor of the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies. He is the co-editor of Finnegans Wake: Human and Nonhuman Histories, Irish Modernisms: Gaps, Conjectures, Possibilities, as well as five edited volumes on Flann O’Brien.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Flann O'Brien:

An Béal Bocht (1941)
The Hard Life (1961)
The Dalkey Archive (1964)
The Third Policeman (1967)
The Best of Myles (1968)

By others:

The Golden Ass by Apuleius (c. 200)
The Fenian Cycle (from c. 600)
The Madness of Sweeney (c. 1200)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605-15)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1623)
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift (1704)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1759)
The Crock of Gold by James Stephens (1912)
Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)
Travelling People by BS Johnson (1963)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino (1979)
Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino (1979)
Lanark by Alasdair Gray (1981)
Blooms of Dublin by Anthony Burgess (1982)
A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers by Hugh Kenner (1983)
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski (2000)
Milkman by Anna Burns (2018)

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LINKS

Finnegans Wake: Human and Nonhuman Histories, edited by Paul Fagan and Richard Barlow: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-finnegans-wake-human-and-nonhuman-histories.html

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Burgess Foundation Substack: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien

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 episode, we’re joined by novelist Adam Roberts, who introduces us to Life in the West by Brian Aldiss.

Life in the West tells the story of Thomas Squire, a filmmaker who is attending an academic conference to introduce his new documentary, Frankenstein in the Arts. At the conference he engages in conversations with the other attendees while dealing with the dissolution of his marriage, the trauma of his childhood and the violent years he spent in Yugoslavia as a member of British intelligence. Anthony Burgess calls the novel ‘a rich book, not afraid of thought.’

Brain Aldiss was born in 1925. After serving in Burma during World War II he worked as a bookseller in Oxford, which was the inspiration for his first novel The Brightfount Diaries, published in 1955. He went on to become one of the most respected British science fiction writers, writing 41 novels, 26 collections of short stories, 8 volumes of poetry, 5 volumes of autobiography and many more works of literary criticism, drama and edited anthologies. He died in 2017 at the age of 92.

Adam Roberts is a writer and an academic at Royal Holloway, University of London. His most recent novel, Lake of Darkness is available now. A History of Fantasy is forthcoming from Bloomsbury (2025).

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Brian Aldiss:

Hothouse (1962)
Greybeard (1964)
Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973)
Frankenstein Unbound (1973)
Helliconia Trilogy (1982-85)
Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1986)
Forgotten Life (1988)
Bury My Heart at W.H. Smith's: A Writing Life (1990)
Remembrance Day (1993)
Twinkling of an Eye, or My Life as an Englishman (1998)
Somewhere East of Life (1994)
'Supertoys Last All Summer Long' in The Complete Short Stories: The 1960s Part 2 (2015)

By others:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1955)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (1980)
The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)
Small World by David Lodge (1984)

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LINKS

Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts (affiliate link): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Lake-of-Darkness-by-Adam-Roberts/9781399617673?a_aid=BurgessFoundation

Fantasy: A Short History by Adam Roberts (forthcoming): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fantasy-9781350407824/

Adam Roberts's blog at Medium: https://medium.com/adams-notebook

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Burgess Foundation's newsletter at Substack: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: Life in the West by Brian Aldiss

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 episode, writer and academic Sarah Graham leads Graham Foster through the 1940s Manhattan of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden Caulfield, a bereaved teenager who recalls a weekend spent in Manhattan after he is expelled from boarding school. As he tells his story of wandering the streets looking for some form of connection in seedy hotels, bars, and nightclubs, he gradually reveals his own state of mind and his desire to rebel against the society that he doesn’t understand.

J.D. Salinger was born in New York in 1919. After participating in some of the most consequential battles of World War II, he began writing short stories for the New Yorker, many of which centred around the Glass family. After publishing the short story collections Nine Stories (1953) and Franny and Zooey (1961), and the volume of two novellas Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963), he retired from public life. He died in 2010.

Sarah Graham is Associate Professor in American Literature at the University of Leicester. Her most recent publications are A History of the Bildungsroman (CUP, 2019) and reviews of American fiction for the Times Literary Supplement. She published a reader’s guide to The Catcher in the Rye in 2007 (Continuum), edited a collection of essays on the novel for Routledge (2007), and has contributed to magazines, conferences and programmes discussing Salinger’s work, including ‘J. D. Salinger: Made in England’ for BBC Radio 4.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By J.D. Salinger:

Nine Stories (1953)

By others:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
The Kit Book for Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines (1943)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2022)

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LINKS

Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: A Reader's Guide by Sarah Graham: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/salingers-the-catcher-in-the-rye-9781441143105/

A History of the Bildungsroman, edited by Sarah Graham: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-the-bildungsroman/4F604819653EF4A07DC14CB6151B4415

International Anthony Burgess Foundation: https://www.anthonyburgess.org

Burgess Foundation's Free Substack Newsletter: https://anthonyburgessfoundation.substack.com

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective: https://nodicecollective.com

Ninety-Nine Novels: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Claire Louise Bennett talks to Brian Dillon about her new book, POND. 

Recorded live at the Anthony Burgess Foundation, Tues 6th October 2015.

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anthonyburgess.org
@MisterEnderby
facebook.com/anthonyburgessfoundation

Claire Louise Bennett

The 2015 Anthony Burgess Lecture was given by the acclaimed screenwriter and film director Hugh Stoddart, who is well-known for his original screenplays and his film and TV adaptations of To the Lighthouse, We Think the World of You, and The Mill on the Floss. Here, Hugh discusses the excitement, hope and loss that comes when a screenplay goes un-filmed, and the joy that arises when a film project goes into production. Foremost among these ghost projects is Hugh's film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s magnificent novel, Earthly Powers. Hugh talks about the obstacles he faced in tackling such a huge project, as well as discussing the challenges presented by screenwriting in general.

Recorded live on Wednesday 25th November at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.

-------
anthonyburgess.org
@MisterEnderby
facebook.com/anthonyburgessfoundation 

2015 Anthony Burgess Lecture: Hugh Stoddart

The first episode of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation's podcast examines the dystopian fiction of Burgess, and how it was inspired by the writings of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Burgess’s own military experience during the Second World War.


Graham Foster's Album

Episode One: Burgess & Dystopia

Episode Two examines Anthony Burgess's relationship with Shakespeare and his works, including discussions of his Shakespeare biography, his novel Nothing Like the Sun and his imaginative interpretation of the bard's life. Featuring music from the little-known and unfilmed musical The Bawdy Bard and Burgess's Shakespeare ballet, Mr WS, this is a fascinating exploration of one of the great influences on Burgess's creative life.

Episode Two: Burgess & Shakespeare

The third episode of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast discusses One Hand Clapping and Tremor of Intent. These two books, republished this year by Serpent's Tail, illustrate the breadth of Burgess's work in fiction, from the plain-speaking northern voice at the centre of One Hand Clapping to the Bond-esque secret agent in Tremor of Intent.

Episode Three: One Hand Clapping & Tremor of Intent

This episode of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast seeks to explore Burgess’s cosmopolitanism. Beginning with his formative years in Manchester, Burgess is revealed as a writer that was intellectually preoccupied by geographic location and how it affects the development of the identity in exile. It also depicts the conflict between Burgess’s identity as a professional writer, and that of ‘The Writer as International Figure’, a personality that he cultivated on television chat shows and in the press.

Episode Four:  Anthony Burgess And His World

What's it going to be then, eh? Episode Five of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast examines Burgess's most famous novel, A Clockwork Orange. From the novel's genesis over fifty years ago, to Stanley Kubrick's controversial film adaptation and beyond, this podcast is a guide through the murky world of Alex and his fearsome droogs.

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Episode Five: A Clockwork Orange

From October 2017, The Poetry School is launching a new course called From The Archives, which explores poetry writing through the rarely-seen archives of Anthony Burgess. 

In the first of three mini-podcasts, course leader Martin Kratz meets the International Anthony Burgess Foundation’s Ian Carrington in the archive to discuss objects that may be featured on the course. 

This episode: a particularly musical matchbox. Inspired? Sign up now for From The Archives at www.poetryschool.com.

From The Archives 1: A Musical Matchbox

To celebrate Christmas 2017 and as a final #Burgess100 centenary celebration, here is the first part of Anthony Burgess reading a slightly abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We found this on a cassette tape here in the Manchester archive held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Such a dramatic story deserves serialisation: parts two to five will follow.

"The Victorians, with sentimental efficiency, rendered the feast irremovable. … [But we can] discount the myth that the Prince Consort and Charles Dickens were responsible for the rich Christmas constellation that we are now, far from reluctantly, stuck with. There just happened to be something in the Victorian ethos that found apt expression in the feast – cult of the family, religiosity, the civic duty of charity, gigantesque consumption. The 1840 Christmas dinner menu for Windsor Castle, filling stomachs not quite satisfied with roast swan, etc., with afterthoughts of curried rabbit and a groaning cold sideboard, is a glorious nightmare. At Windsor Castle there was a Christmas tree, a genuine innovation of Albert’s, but dear Mr Dickens invented nothing. His ‘Christmas Carol’ sums up, with endearing mawkishness, Victorian robustness and sanctimony.’ […] But there is a private wisdom that shines, even in office parties, inept gifts and Boxing Day hangover. Dickens  was right: Christmas is a good time and a loving one. I send, out of exile, such seasonal blessings as you will accept." Anthony Burgess, ‘Merry Xmas Nevertheless’, 1978.

A Christmas Carol read by Anthony Burgess - part 1 of 5

Part two of five.

To celebrate Christmas 2017 and as a final #Burgess100 centenary celebration, here is the second part of Anthony Burgess reading a slightly abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We found this on a cassette tape here in the Manchester archive held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Such a dramatic story deserves serialisation: parts three to five will follow.

Click here for the full playlist: https://soundcloud.com/misterenderby/sets/anthony-burgess-christmas-carol

A Christmas Carol read by Anthony Burgess - part 2 of 5

"Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore..." Part three of five.

To celebrate Christmas 2017 and as a final #Burgess100 centenary celebration, here is the third part of Anthony Burgess reading a slightly abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We found this on a cassette tape here in the Manchester archive held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Such a dramatic story deserves serialisation: parts four and five will follow.

Click here for the full playlist: soundcloud.com/misterenderby/sets/anthony-burgess-christmas-carol

A Christmas Carol read by Anthony Burgess - part 3 of 5

Dickens' classic story continues: Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas takes a mournful turn. Part four of five.

To celebrate Christmas 2017 and as a final #Burgess100 centenary celebration, here is the fourth part of Anthony Burgess reading a slightly abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We found this on a cassette tape here in the Manchester archive held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Such a dramatic story deserves serialisation: part five will follow.

Click here for the full playlist: soundcloud.com/misterenderby/sets/anthony-burgess-christmas-carol

A Christmas Carol read by Anthony Burgess - part 4 of 5

To celebrate Christmas 2017 and as a final #Burgess100 centenary celebration, here is the final part of Anthony Burgess reading a slightly abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We found this on a cassette tape here in the Manchester archive held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Such a dramatic story deserves serialisation: we hope you agree.

Click here for the full playlist: soundcloud.com/misterenderby/sets/anthony-burgess-christmas-carol

achristmascarolcharlesdickensaudiobookliteraturechristmasanthonyburgessburgess100

A Christmas Carol read by Anthony Burgess - part 5 of 5

The Burgess Foundation's Andrew Biswell talks to Enrico Terrinoni about his work on James Joyce and Anthony Burgess. Recorded in the Burgess Foundation Reading Room on 17 February 2020.

Enrico Terrinoni Interview (17 February 2020)

A snatch of some lively and cheerful Irish tunes arranged by Anthony Burgess for guitar: played by the fantastic Mela Quartet at the Burgess Foundation in 2017.

Trois Morceaux Irlandais

An extract from Anthony Burgess's musical setting of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, recorded in 1978.

The Waste Land (excerpt)

Part of Anthony Burgess's Symphony in C, composed in 1975 for the University of Iowa.

Unknown album (04/09/2012 14:24:25)

Symphony in C (excerpt)

An extract from Anthony Burgess's sonata written during his war service in Gibraltar in 1945: his oldest surviving complete work.

Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in G Minor (excerpt)

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast explores the life and work of Anthony Burgess, most famous for writing A Clockwork Orange. We talk to writers, literature experts, and other people who met Burgess in various contexts. We also help illuminate Burgess's work through informative scripted episodes.

Burgess Foundation

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