The International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast

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 Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano, with poet, translator, editor and literary titan, Michael Schmidt.Under the Volcano traces Geoffrey Firmin’s last day. It's set on the Day of the Dead festival in 1938, during which Firmin is visited by his wife and his brother, who offer the possibility of salvation from his alcoholic decline. As the trio spend the day together, their uneasy alliance is threatened by Firmin’s drinking, his suspicions, and his desire to vanish into the Mexican countryside. As events unfold it quickly becomes apparent that Firmin has no interest in saving himself.Malcolm Lowry was born on the Wirral in 1909. At eighteen, he left home to work at sea, which inspired his novel Ultramarine (1933). After gaining a degree from Cambridge and after the breakdown of his first marriage, he crossed the Atlantic and explored the United States, Mexico and Canada. He died in 1957.Michael Schmidt is a poet, literary historian, translator and editor. His most recent book of poems, Talking to Stanley on the Telephone, appeared in 2021. His major critical undertakings include Lives of the Poets (1999), The First Poets: Lives of the Ancient Greek poets (2005), The Novel: a Biography (2014) and Gilgamesh: the Life of a Poem (2019). Michael is founder, editor, and managing director of Carcanet Press and general editor of PN Review. He is currently a Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester.-----BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEBy Malcolm Lowry:Selected Poems of Malcolm Lowry (1962)By others:The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (c. 1321)Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan (1606)Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais (trans. by Thomas Urquhart, 1653)Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)Three Lives by Gertrude Stein (1909)'The Dead' in Dubliners by James Joyce (1914)Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence (1926)Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1940)Family Sayings by Natalia Ginzburg (1963)-----LINKSTalking to Stanley on the Telephone by Michael Schmidt (affiliate link)The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt (affiliate link)Carcanet PressPN ReviewInternational Anthony Burgess FoundationThe theme music is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, and is performed by No Dice Collective

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 heads back to the era of the Bright Young Things to examine Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited with writer, academic and editor Barbara Cooke.Brideshead Revisited is perhaps Evelyn Waugh’s most famous novel. It follows Ryder as he remembers his life, from his undergraduate years at the University of Oxford in the golden age before the Second World War, to his wartime enlistment in the army. His life is coloured by his obsession with the Flytes, an aristocratic Catholic family who live in the stately home of Brideshead. In Ninety-Nine Novels, Burgess writes, ‘I have read Brideshead Revisited at least a dozen times and have never failed to be charmed and moved, even to tears.’Evelyn Waugh was born in 1903. At the age of 24, he published his first book, a biography of the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the following year he published his first novel, Decline and Fall. Sixteen more novels followed, including A Handful of Dust, Scoop and Vile Bodies. His last novels were the Sword of Honour trilogy, which were published in 1965. He died in 1966.Barbara Cooke is a Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University. She is also Co-Executive Editor of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh, published by Oxford University Press, a series which brings together all of Waugh’s published and previously unpublished writing with comprehensive introductions, contextual writing and annotations. She is the author of Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford, published by The Bodleian Library, and has recently written the introduction to Penguin’s new edition of Decline and Fall.-----BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEBy Evelyn Waugh:Decline and Fall (1928)Vile Bodies (1930)A Handful of Dust (1934)Helena (1950)The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957)A Little Learning (1957)By others:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers (1935)I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1948)Crooked House by Agatha Christie (1949)A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1967)Ruling Passions by Tom Driberg (1977)Evelyn Waugh (Two Volumes: The Early Years 1903-1939 and The Later Years 1939-1966) by Martin Stannard (1989-94)-----LINKSEvelyn Waugh's Oxford by Barbara Cooke (affiliate link)The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh at Oxford University PressInternational Anthony Burgess FoundationThe theme music is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, and is performed by No Dice Collective.-----If you’ve enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Graham Foster talks to one of the 2023 Liana Burgess Fellows, Dr Mária Palla, who has spent three weeks researching in the archives at the Burgess Foundation.In its capacity as an educational charity, the Burgess Foundation offers grants to researchers and scholars with an interest in the life and work of Anthony Burgess and other connected subjects such as twentieth century literature and musical composition. The Liana Burgess Fellowship helps international researchers to visit the archives at the Burgess Foundation. It is named after Burgess’s wife, who set up the Foundation in 2003 and was instrumental in preserving his personal papers and possessions, all of which is available to researchers at our facilities in Manchester.Dr Mária Palla is an assistant professor in the Institute of English and America Studies at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary. Her research focuses on contemporary literatures in English, which she examines using the tools of post-colonial criticism. She has published widely on Canadian literature, focussing on representations of the diasporic experiences of immigrants to the country. She is currently working on Anthony Burgess’s Malayan novels.-------LINKS:Mária Palla at Pázmány Péter Catholic UniversityInternational Anthony Burgess Foundation-------If you have enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Graham Foster to one of the 2023 Liana Burgess Fellows, Dr Ákos Farkas, who has spent three weeks researching in the archives at the Burgess Foundation.In its capacity as an educational charity, the Burgess Foundation offers grants to researchers and scholars with an interest in the life and work of Anthony Burgess and other connected subjects such as twentieth century literature and musical composition. The Liana Burgess Fellowship helps international researchers to visit the archives at the Burgess Foundation. It is named after Burgess’s wife, who set up the Foundation in 2003 and was instrumental in preserving his personal papers and possessions, all of which is available to researchers at our facilities in Manchester.Dr Ákos Farkas is Associate Professor of English at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests lie in twentieth century English, American and Irish literature, in particular, the Catholic novel, modernism and the postmodern and utopian and dystopian literature. As a translator and editor, he has helped bring Burgess’s Enderby sequence into Hungarian, and has translated the works of authors such as Cecilia Ahern, Geroge McDonald Fraser, Tibor Fischer and George Orwell. He is also the volume editor for the Irwell Edition of Anthony Burgess’s The Clockwork Testament, available now from Manchester University Press.-------LINKS:Ákos Farkas at Eötvös Loránd UniversityThe Irwell Edition of the Works of Anthony Burgess at Manchester University PressInternational Anthony Burgess Foundation-------If you have enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Andrew Biswell explores Anthony Burgess’s adventures in America with the help of Christopher W. Thurley.Burgess first visited America in 1966, when he was 49, but over the course of his career he gained extensive experience of both living and working in the United States. These experiences influenced some of his most important work, including Earthly Powers, and he analysed American culture extensively in his journalism and non-fiction.Christopher W Thurley is an English faculty member at Gaston College in Dallas, North Carolina. He earned his doctorate, which focussed on the life and work of Anthony Burgess, from Manchester Metropolitan University. His monograph, Anthony Burgess and America, is forthcoming from Manchester University Press.Click here for more information about Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support the work of the Burgess Foundation.If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Andrew Biswell, Director of the Burgess Foundation, investigates Anthony Burgess's Chatsky, to celebrate the very first publication of the play by Salamander Street. Chatsky is translated from Alexander Griboyedov's nineteenth century play Gore ot uma, or Woe Out of Wit.Chatsky tells the story of a young Russian diplomat who returns from a foreign posting to Moscow, where he hopes to rekindle his love affair with his childhood sweetheart ,Sophie, but she is being pursued by Molchalin, and the Moscow elite have grown suspicious of Chatsky's worldly intelligence. Burgess's exuberant translation maintains the original's rhyming form, but, like his earlier translation of Cyrano de Bergerac, the wordy and witty results are quintessentially Burgessian.To shed light on the play, Andrew Biswell speaks to Anna Aslanyan, expert in Russian literature, about Griboyedov's original, and how Burgess's translation captures its essence. He also chats to Jonathan Cullen, who played Molchalin in the original production of Chatsky at the Almeida, London, in March 1993. Here's more about our guests in this episode:Anna Aslanyan is a journalist, translator and public service interpreter. As a journalist she has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and other UK publications, writing about books and arts. Her translations from Russian include contemporary short stories for Dalkey Archive’s collection Best European Fiction and Egor Kovalevsky’s 19th century travelogue A Journey to Africa. Her popular history of translation Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History is out now.Jonathan Cullen has been an actor for stage and screen for nearly 40 years. On stage, he has performed lead roles with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and on the West End as well as renowned theatres around the UK. He has appeared in films such as Velvet Goldmine, Finding Neverland and Suffragette, and on television he played King George VI in the BBC’s adaptation of Len Deighton’s SS-GB, and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Channel 4 comedy The Windsors. He is currently based in Portland, Oregon.Extracts from Chatsky are read by Paul Barnhill who is an actor, puppeteer and the creative director of the theatre company Goofus.-------LINKSTwo Plays: Chatsky and Miser, Miser by Anthony Burgess at Salamander StreetDancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History by Anna Aslanyan at Blackwells (affiliate link)Jonathan Cullen's WebsiteGoofus Theatre CompanyInternational Anthony Burgess Foundation-------If you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Andrew Biswell speaks to writer and journalist Andy Spinoza about his new book, Manchester Unspun, a post-industrial cultural history of Anthony Burgess's hometown.Andy Spinoza moved from London to Manchester at the age of eighteen and has remained in the city ever since. He wrote about the city’s music scene for the NME and The Face and he founded the alternative magazine City Life in 1983, which charted the city’s cultural life for over twenty years, and helped launch the careers of Mark Kermode, Jon Ronson and Melvin Burgess among others. Andy also worked as a gossip columnist for Manchester Evening News for ten years, during which time he met Anthony Burgess several times.LINKS:Manchester Unspun by Andy Spinoza at Manchester University PressAndy Spinoza on TwitterInternational Anthony Burgess FoundationIf you have enjoyed this episode, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Anthony Burgess was one of the most important and prolific British writers of the twentieth century. Most famous for his dystopian vision A Clockwork Orange, he wrote 33 novels, 25 books of non-fiction and over 250 musical compositions. This podcast aims to illuminate Burgess’s life and work, and his connections to other twentieth century literature, film and music. So join us as we explore the world of Anthony Burgess.In this episode, Andrew Biswell talks to the poet Peter Bakowski about his virtual residency at the Burgess Foundation and the poems inspired by his research into Anthony Burgess.Peter Bakowski is our first Virtual Writer in Residence and joined us through a collaborative project with Manchester UNESCO City of Literature. Peter is an award-winning Australian poet, whose work has an international influence. Having travelled widely in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia, his work has been set in many countries around the world, and been published in languages such as Arabic, Japanese, Bengali and Mandarin. 2022 marks his 40th year of writing poetry.Peter’s latest collection of poetry are Our Ways on Earth, published by Recent Work Press, and Nearly Lunch, published by Wakefield Press and written in collaboration with the Adelaide poet Ken Bolton.-------LINKS:Our Ways on Earth by Peter BakowskiNearly Lunch by Peter Bakowski and Ken BoltonManchester UNESCO City of LiteratureInternational Anthony Burgess Foundation-------If you have enjoyed this podcast, why not leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, Will Carr celebrates the release of the Irwell Edition of Anthony Burgess's Mozart and the Wolf Gang with Christine Lee Gengaro, Professor of Music at Los Angeles City College.The Irwell Edition of the Works of Anthony Burgess is one of the central projects of the Burgess Foundation, and aims to publish each of Burgess’s novels and major works of non-fiction in critical editions edited by experts and scholars. Each edition has a new introduction, a text which has been restored to that of the first edition, appendices drawn from the Burgess Archives around the world, and expansive notes on the text. Mozart and the Wolf Gang is a strange novella. It was written to commemorate the bicentenary of Mozart, and combines fiction, opera libretto, and fragments of film script among other things which work together to be a deliberation on the nature of music.The Irwell Edition of Mozart and the Wolf Gang was edited by Alan Shockley, and was one of his final projects before he died in 2020. Alan was Professor of Music at California State University, Long Beach, and as a composer, he thoughtful and challenging work was admired by audiences all over the world.Mozart and the Wolf Gang is out now!Find out more about the Irwell Edition of the Works of Anthony Burgess at Manchester University Press.-------LINKS:A Memorial for Alan Shockley at California State University, Long BeachMusic in the Words: Musical Form and Counterpoint in the Twentieth Century Novel by Alan ShockleyGender, Power and Identity in the Films of Stanley Kubrick [containing 'Music and Misogyny in A Clockwork Orange' by Christine Lee Gengaro]Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange [containing 'Transforming Variations: Music in the Novel, Film, and Play, A Clockwork Orange' by Christine Lee Gengaro]International Anthony Burgess Foundation-------If you have enjoyed this episode, why not write a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.