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Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993)

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  • Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) was a novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. Best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, he wrote more than sixty books of fiction, non-fiction and autobiography, as well as classical music, plays, film scripts, essays and articles.

    Burgess was born in Manchester, England and grew up in Harpurhey and Moss Side. He was educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He lived in Malaya, Malta, Monaco, Italy and the United States, and his books are still widely read all over the world.

    Click here to find out more about the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester.
    Praise for Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993) 'This will doubtless be the definitive volume of Burgess's poetry for some time'

    Rob Spence, Shiny New Books

    'In scale and personality there is plenty of Burgess here: the philosophical musing, the encyclopedic obscurity, the wilful and occasionally jagged use of language... The reader will gain no particularly new insight into the feelings of the writer, but they will find the ideas which drove much of his fiction distilled, distorted and put to play... his Collected Poems demonstrate to the reader that poetry, with its linguistic freedom and its inherent allusiveness, was always at the heart of his output'

    Simon Rennie, Times Literary Supplement

    'Meet Anthony Burgess, the poet. A brilliant rhymester, a polemicist and provocateur, and a master of precisely employed, wonderfully nuanced language. Astonishing and exhilarating.'
    William Boyd
     '€˜Reading Burgess is pleasant, suggestive and fun.'

    Rafa Latorre, El Mundo
     'Offering the wisdom, sense of discovery and thrill of a dozen fine novels, The Ink Trade can be read as a practical handbook of reading, writing and reviewing, as a compendium of shrewd maxims and epigrammatic wit, and as a defence of the business of writing alongside a gently ironic lament to a writer's plight in the age of mass media and marketing. For those with a deeper interest in Burgess's bountiful output, it is also a vital source for his theories of literature and language, and how these animate his work.'

    James Hopkin, NewStatesman

    'One of the things that The Ink Trade shows is that Burgess, whose main fault as a reviewer was excessive compassion for his fellow authors, can still serve as a model for beginners and old hacks alike.'

    Kevin Jackson, Literary Review

     'The Ink Trade is the perfect companion for anyone on their daily commute, especially those interested in journalism and literary criticism. It is an accessible and effortless read and I'm thankful Will Carr has given us that.'
    Emily Priest, The London Magazine
      'The writings cover a range of subjects, including Metropolis, Fritz Lang's classic 1927 film, and fellow writers Ernest Hemingway and JB Priestley. They also include an unpublished 1991 lecture on censorship.... The essays span Burgess's journalistic career, including the Yorkshire Post, from which he was sacked after reviewing one of his own books - Inside Mister Enderby... The review, dated 1963, is included in The Ink Trade.'
    Dalya Alberge, The Guardian
     'Carr has achieved a heroic feat in the editing of this book. From the vast mountain of Burgess' non-fiction writing he has curated a selection that is intensely readable, pleasantly eclectic, and balances the published and the unpublished in such a way that those who have read all of Burgess' previous collections will enjoy this book as much as the newcomer.'
    Joe Darlington, The Manchester Review of Books
     'Language is definitely of top concern in these articles. He believed that language and wordplay should be of top concern to anyone... Burgess tried to adopt the role of valiant, though uncompromising, protector and defender of great literature.'
    Blair James, The Manchester Review of Books
    A 'Book to Look Out For in 2018' in Herald Scotland
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