Face to Face - Anthony Burgess (21st March 1989)

Uploaded for historical preservation. If you are a fan of Anthony Burgess the man/the author, then you might like this video. If all you care about is A Clockwork Orange, skip it.

[@15ofni9e]

I miss the bygone days when you could turn on the tv and listen to interesting erudite conversation.

[@AnalogOpher]

Perhaps it's just me, but I get a very strong impression that Burgess LOVED to be interviewed. Ah, to have had a drink in a pub with that genius. Alas.

[@SoldierofFortune07]

Earthly Powers is the reason I started writing. I can't stress enough the importance of the role this man indirectly played on my life.

[@gin7772003]

SoldierofFortune07 orchestral music 2016

[@ianmartinezcassmeyer]

My first Burgess book. A great panoramic novel, with a great comic twist and historic scope to it. I have a feeling that Burgess put a lot more of himself than he intended in Kenneth Toomey; he's what Burgess would've been, I think, had he not found love.

[@deirdre108]

One of the great 20th century novels--a fascinating read.

[@_aworldthatspoke950]

Where are you now?

[@Psmith-ek5hq]

Are you a published author?( And I don't mean "vanity" published). If you are, you may as well plug them.

[@TheChannelofaDisappointedMan]

Fantastic writer. His The Doctor is Sick and Enderby stories are magnificent comic novels. The sheer exuberance of the language.

[@johnappleby405]

He was a real son of Manchester! Don’t expect too much! Fascinating individual and I could listen to him all day. Must get hold of his autobiography

[@jonharrison9222]

He wrote two.

[@sirjayp4171]

Notice how at no point in the interview does the interviewer ever ask questions about A Clockwork Orange. I'm sure Burgess is joyful to talk about his whole career and not just that one part of it for the hundredth time.

[@arthurgomes4755]

Justin P. he actualy despises how of all his books A Clockwork Orange gets most of the atention

[@farerolobos9382]

@@arthurgomes4755 I wouldn't say he despised it, but he felt very frustrated. At first he was very happy with the movie and it shows in those interviews just after the screening of the picture, like one with Malcolm McDowell on the BBC. He had the expectation that all the excitement about the movie would attract attention about all his work, but it never happened and he got increasingly frustrated about it. It's said that in much later interviews he put as a condition not to be asked (too much) about the Clockwork Orange and most interviewers went along. But he never actually repudiated the book neither Kubrick's version of it. It's interesting to compare his reaction to Kubrick's movie based on his book, which he not only approved but even appreciated the changes made by the director to make it more cinematic, with the reaction of a much more commercial and less talented writer like Stephen King, who rejected Kubrick's version of the Shining and even had an argument with him because it deviated too much from the novel. The humble greatness of Burgess and his respect for the creativity of another genius shows clearly when compared with that self-bloated King of the PC toadies.

[@jonharrison9222]

@@farerolobos9382 Your last sentence tells the reader not to take you seriously and tanks the argument that until then you were careful to present. And we shouldn’t be too ungrateful that ACO is still in print and still sells as well it does, in large part due to the film. While Burgess likes to make out he never made a bean from it, we now know that was far from true.

[@Elizabeth42069]

"factual nostalgia" is an absolutely perfect way to put the sort of longing for a past that one never experienced..He was a very interesting man, for sure.

[@borderlord]

His 2 Volumes of autobiography are rip roaring gems,maybe his best books ! The Malaya Trilogy I've read and Any Old Iron is a brilliant book too .. A Composer who's music was played by orchestras all around the world. A very rich ,adventurous and accomplished life But His wife should have taken him to task about his hairdo when she met him!

[@gutplucker]

what a great guy! his autobiographies are wonderful

[@89798y9]

Happy 100th Birthday, Anthony Burgess! February 25, 1917 - February 25, 2017

[@MikeGreenwood51]

Happy Birthday to George Harrison. Not 100 and Zeppo Marxs. Also Enrico Caruso Elkie Brooks

[@davidlang6511]

If you have not read Earthly Powers, you owe it to yourself to do so. Really, you do. It is an insightful and quite moving exploration into many of Burgess' favorite themes (obsessions?): Evil, free choice, God--all played out with wonderful word play. I should quickly add that the word play displayed in Earthly Powers is quite different from that found in Clockwork Language; that is, the language is straightforward (although you will likely be reaching for a good dictionary), but the language is that of words moving through the mind of a very intelligent and talented writer. BTW, as a footnote, Burgess wrote two excellent books on Joyce and a masterful analysis of Hemingway. Pick them up too.

[@dengelke]

Reading Earthly Powers now! What is the book on Hemingway?

[@davidlang6511]

Hi Dan, Burgess' book on Hemingway is called Ernest Hemingway and His World. It was published in 1978. It is a small book (128 pages with pictures), but Burgess' writing is often quite illuminating, e.g., when he comments on Hemingway's writing in A Moveable Feast: "The prose is pure Hemingway, simple and very evocative, life accepting but, as always in his work, touched by melancholy. The melancholy resides in the very shape of the sentences which, always avoiding the periodic, cannot resist a dying fall. The Hemingway tune is elegiac when it most celebrates joy."

[@dengelke]

Thank for this gorgeous reply, David!

[@37Dionysos]

Yes, a wonderful book---

[@kelman727]

The name change helped. He originally planned to call it The Prince of the Powers of the Air.

[@fazthenow]

The man has the driest sense of humour. I had the pleasure of meeting him once. Needless to say both of us standing there with a can of beer in our hands, he was more articualte than me!

[@beethovenfan3]

What a sweetheart. I love him!

[@freuddyful]

Great writer, good talker, ridiculous comb-over.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

I don't what that strand above his eyebrows was doing, so far removed from the rest of his hair by a vast desert of glistening forehead. I wish he'd paused to brush his hair--and dab the corner of his mouth.

[@ianmartinezcassmeyer]

I'm that rare Burgess fan who's never read Clockwork Orange. I prefer his other books, like Earthly Powers and The Wanting Seed. Haven't read a book of his I didn't like on some level yet. Underrated for sure.

[@conorstephenson6397]

You should definitely check out A Clockwork Orange though mate, there’s a reason it’s so iconic within pop culture history.

[@conorstephenson6397]

Apparently the language/slang barrier puts some people off but it adds to the immersion of the world presented so much IMO

[@JapanJohnny2012]

The first time I ever went to a book signing was the one he mentioned at 3:50. It was at Waterstones at Deansgate, Manchester. Of of three formative events of my late teens, and early 20s. The other two were going to the Hacienda (for my taste in music, and socializing) and a Bill Hicks show (for my philosophical outlook and sense of humour).

[@xumbacampos1844]

AB and B. Hicks, totally agree! As they say here in Brazil, I agree "em gênero, número e grau" (roughly, "in gender, number and degree" - some primary school grammatical crap from childhood.

[@scottyunitedboy2925]

JapanJohnny2012 bro, I envy you

[@Sdea1903]

Has anyone ever read The Piano Players? A delight.

[@BRStormysea]

He is so cool, he could have been a rock star.

[@palefire1294]

A very honest and soft spoken man....thanks for uploading.

[@stuart10woodheys]

Many thanks for uploading this wonderful interview with this "stuck-up, opinionated bastard" (his words, not mine). I must have watched it half a dozen times already but just love to hear his turns of phrase and gems of wisdom. Mister Isaacs is right to bring it up: Burgess wasn't given the credit he was due during his lifetime.

[@darrallc]

Thanks very much for putting this up, it's a fascinating insight into one of my favourite writers. All the best!

[@carstenschale6833]

A peculiar genius!

[@71brett]

I have seen this before as think the BBC had some of these face to faces on their site, but may have been for a limited time. Thanks very much for posting it here; have just watched it again and it's so good to hear a half hour interview with him without the mention of A Clockwork Orange.

[@EastLancsJohn]

Really enjoyed this, thanks for uploading

[@brinham6]

I echo the thoughts of my friends. Thank you so much for uploading the entirety of this interview

[@tteedghihh]

Great talker.

[@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry]

Thanks so much for uploading this!

[@potbelliedfool]

Thanks so much for posting this-

[@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess]

You have performed an important service in uploading this, Doomsday-Zen. Well done!

[@dasglasperlenspiel10]

Burgess, a type of writer who no longer exists, and we are much the poorer for it.

[@justininfrance]

Yes, the type of writer who uses words, sentences and such forth. Contemporary writers, waving teapots and singing flags. What kind of writing is that! One famous writer does things with twigs and old dish cloths. Female of course. Bring back white, male writers using words for goodness sakes.

[@diego67hd94]

Saurat If you can’t appreciate the literary value of a book because the author isn’t white, chances are you weren’t in it for the literary value in the first place. Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Ondaatje, Arundhati Roy among others are non white living authors of incredible literary talent, all of whom write in English.

[@tombradford7035]

Would have been nice hearing the end of one of Anthony's sentences instead of the interviewer cutting in!

[@tbwatch88]

love him.

[@marcusbeale3072]

What a sensible chap

[@amandaeliasch]

Even if you do love Clockwork Orange you can enjoy this.

[@heliotropezzz333]

I've recently read and enjoyed some books by Anthony Burgess - one about Christopher Marlowe ('A Dead Man in Deptford') and one about the love life of Shakespeare. 'Nothing Like the Sun'. I only found out about these books by accident. He wrote a lot of books in addition to 'A Clockwork Orange'.

[@martydav9475]

Yes he wrote the best part of fifty books. The "Enderby" books are wonderful to read as is his autobiography (two volumes) - though how much of it is actually true is another matter. His greatest book is "Earthly Powers" in 1980. It should have won the 1980 Booker Prize but it went to William Golding (of "Lord of the Flies" fame) instead for his novel "Rites of Passage". Golding's book was a good one, but it wasn't the masterpiece that Burgess's book was. The judges, not for the first time, made the wrong choice."EarthlyPowers" is a brilliant book; it's quite a bleak book, but it's still brilliant.

[@DieGroteske]

If you squint your eyes slightly, Anthony looks rather like an intellectualized Donald Trump.

[@Melvinshermen]

DieGroteske yes

[@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry]

I demand satisfaction, sir! Pistols at dawn!

[@OGCNNDSK]

rather, indeed

[@benneden2580]

I see him as a combination between Trump and Michael Parkinson

[@mostevokish]

@Mr Sheffner I doubt he's aware of Burgess' existence...

[@charlespeterson3798]

I lost my first edition "Shakespeare". It is the best book I have read on that showoff.

[@dillonjackson931]

Damn 103 years and his works will live on

[@australiainfelix7307]

Smart man. He amassed a small fortune by investing astutely in property. It would have been more interesting hearing him talk about that.

[@cosmiclino2080]

"Now all the cats were getting spoogy and running and jumping in a like cat-panic, and some were blaming each other, hitting out cat-tolchocks with the old lapa and ptaaaaa and grrrrr and kraaaaark."

[@mostevokish]

cat-tolchocks! Hahaha! Blame the cats! Who's showing off? Lol

[@frankandstern8803]

Burgess provides thoroughly rich and satisfying responses to these admittedly, great questions but the interviewer seems completely unaffected by the responses as he bulldozes into the next question. Even seems to miss the bits of humor. However, even though I may find the interviewer somewhat mechanical it seems to squeeze out of John his quality yarn. Is this credited to the part of the questions or the responses? Both? Ahhhhh, the art of the interview.

[@robertmajor3754]

Heartwarming lovely man.

[@donaldist7321]

how his Englishness has affected his Catholicism. His Italian wife hopefully took the despair away. He was confessing in every interview and every book.

[@TomFazzini]

His head always reminds me of a planet with solar system rings round it.

[@zcosmos9]

What's the Burgess work that is three storylines simultaneously ( a sci-fi, ancient Rome and old west themes)?

[@floriandiazpesantes573]

“Wives have certain functions”: one couldn’t possibly say this in these days

[@illuminant1129]

A fine writer, whose work as an entity, deserves deeper consideration - the Malay trilogy for example - rather than just concentrating on the one novel, that most people know from a powerful if notorious film.

[@marclayne9261]

I love AB......I love literary snobs, that bask in their arrogance........AB despised democracy & equality....writers like this do not exist today....

[@dli563]

Happy 100th Mr Burgess. More prescient than you could have ever imagined. The Malayan Trilogy (The Long Day Wanes) should now be renamed The Malaysian Tragedy. But yet 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.' Tennyson's Ulysses "The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: | The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep | Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, | 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.'

[@fiandrhi]

The days when one could be a conservative with an intellect are over.

[@kelman727]

John Harrington Hardly a typical English Tory. He resented the monarchy, Oxbridge, and snobbery and venerated the NHS.

[@Melvinshermen]

John Harrington and same with christen

[@ianmartinezcassmeyer]

@@kelman727 What was it he said? "Socialized medicine is a priority in any civilized country today." If only people here in the US, where I am, concurred...

[@heliotropezzz333]

The interview seems like a creative artist being interviewed a Philistine (accusing Burgess of 'showing off' for playing with words in his books, which Burgess thought an odd thing to say, and replied 'Was Shakespeare a show off?").

[@wj2429]

A fine influnce for a working class lad with ideas above his station! Never apologise for your interests! Unless they're vulgar, of course.

[@charlespeterson3798]

A man amongst men,alas no longer, original sin, fragments of a genius, Shakespeare's pard.

[@kelman727]

Burgess was a multimillionaire by the time of this interview, thanks to his property portfolio and film script work. He moved to Monaco to become a tax exile. When he says he's not wealthy, he is fibbing somewhat.

[@rmilrta]

+kelman727 Yes, although perhaps he's suggesting something about his wealth relative to the other inhabitants there.

[@kelman727]

If you are a multi-millionaire, you are wealthy; no amount of semantic fudging alters this.

[@rmilrta]

kelman727 You're probably right, and I'm sure he's aware he's fudging slightly.

[@kelman727]

He was a multi-millionaire, but I should add that he certainly didn't live like one. He didn't reduce his workload, and he he never went in for fine living. Perhaps you can take the boy out of Manchester, but you can't take Manchester out of the boy.

[@joanofarc33]

+kelman727 except he seems to have left his accent back in Manchester and took on the ole Oxford tongue.

[@johnw218]

I found it hard to get into his novels( my fault, I'm sure) but thoroughly enjoyed his autobiography. More nonfiction would have been great

[@Andrew-ud7nu]

I agree. The two volumes of autobiography are his masterpieces. I'm not even too worried if they're accurate. Brilliant storytelling and amazing use of language. Very funny. What a writer.

[@bakowskipoetrynews54]

An easy clear novel to read by Burgess is "One Hand Clapping" - I borrowed it from the public library.

[@tobagostreetpolicestationc561]

Mr Isaacs, what’s the rush?

[@Larkinchance]

I know that we must make allowance for the great artist but Anthony Burgess inherited a step-son from his new wife, who was soon to become his adopted son, “Paolo Andrea (1964-2002”. He suffered from indifference and neglect.. Dead at 38.. Causes unknown..

[@nickwyatt9498]

Causes not unknown but discreetly kept from the press. Andrew hit the bottle (and other things) pretty hard. He wasn't neglected by AB or Liliana but he was his own man with his own group of friends (mainly musicians) and rejected the idea that he needed help. I speak as one who knew him.

[@Larkinchance]

@@nickwyatt9498 thank you

[@penelopei7051]

A bit of commentary about divisive behaviors recognized early in life

[@johnrichardson6296]

Good interview - always interesting. One wishes it were much longer. Generally I like Jeremy Isaacs, the interviewer, but I do find his ridiculous, pretentious pronunciation of 'novels' as 'nUvels' very irritating. This is neither the correct British nor American pronunciation of the word. It strikes me as rather affected.

[@1961dietmar]

so I´m hope to read it Hey, send it to me, ist`s OK so I like this It`s in german Der letzte Weg zur Teetasse Thank you

[@lb92390]

this close-up is unbearable

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Could have been BoJo from the thumbnail

[@hunterluxton5976]

" The Welsh are on the whole more sexy given than other celts". That explains my rampant masterbation. I though it was just a habit that got a bit out control. I'm pleased to know it's in my genes.

[@samrichardsonthedirector]

I can’t believe the dude who wrote clockwork is Boris Johnson’s dad

[@HomeAtLast501]

I just read that the only money he made from Kubrick's film adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange" was the initial $500 he was paid. I'm sorry, but if I had been Kubrick I would have allocated a percentage of the royalty to him. What a crime.

[@comprehensiveboycomprehens8786]

It seems to me to be largely about having a very high opinion of your thoughts, a thing which does not occur to most people and to express them in a particular slow drawling way, as if you were seeing something essentially simple in an extraordinarily circumspect way, the voice pitched much lower than average, with the pronunciation typical of the upper middle class. You know a triiiiiiangle haaaas threee siiiiides. Yeeeees, remarkable. Authoritay!

[@kelman727]

Comprehensiveboy Comprehensiveboy He was born a working class boy in Manchester. Most people should hear it in his voice almost immediately.

[@alexrose9487]

thank you d im halfway through the 4 books of mr enderby thank you for posting this behind his stonehenge teeth lie mark e smith / morrissey / alex,x

[@paulflynn6169]

I love Burgess but he is inaccurate about south Manchester : it was ,in my time mostly Catholic.His Liverpool step mother sounds a nightmare : most scousers are ...whining bores.

[@detrogamus2619]

He somehow looks like Donald Trump

[@kelman727]

But has 4,000 times his intellect.

[@michaelboylan5308]

Why did such a gifted writer write potboiler trash like A clockwork Orange ,Faulkner wrote Sanctuary for the money...did Burgess, Dickens wrote his last novel Edwin Drood and Hardy wrote his first to cash in on the new mass market murder/sensation novel craze, Do all novelists sell out, Did Burgess finally disown ACO

[@MikeGreenwood51]

You see it as potboiler trash. Not sure what you mean by that. But I think it's as pulp-fiction trash (rubbish (sub low grade)).But are you judging it by Kubrickian film viewing thinking the Kubrick production was what Mr. Burgess wrote? As Mr.A. Burgess did not write the film, he wrote a book. The film misses points made in the book. One point being it is a look at teenage juvenile delinquency in a pre sixties (pre kennerdy, Beatles, hippies, drug culture, LSD, The Pill, tranquillizers, colour TV (general), Sir Alexander Douglas Home PM, etc) era. The film was 9 years after publication and after the atomic bomb of the wild sixties. So unless you can detatch yourself from the later fantasmogolical colourfull musical CWO which was made for punter cash (commercial purposes). You will not see the full masterfulness of the book. You need to go back (just my opinion) and view it in the James Dean, Marlon Brando, 'The Wild One' era. A Post depression, dust bowl era after prohibition. Of course he wasn't there. But media spans the globe and so issues then affected others with their cultral iconography. In the UK it was pre Mods and Rockers or early days. A post apocalyptian world (WW2) where the new youth are born in to a world miles apart from their parents. Lucky to be alive and rationed they survived the food shortages and bombs. Often by thrift. Then their innocent child is born and knows nothing of the hard times. But amongst the innocent some not so innocent delinquent psychopathic villeins are born. So in an age of the Black Board Jungle attitudes seem to have turned anti establishment and abuse to parents showing no respect. So the book if viewed in the time period of the emerging Beatnik delinquent era. It becomes as much a sociological statement about teenage gang culture and delinquency as it does about motivational factors behind the incidents. So how you see it as 'potboiler trash' is potentially as you viddy it like a painted whore all glossed up by Mr. Kubrick. Low value trash not worth the sale price. But that's the wrong way to see it. That's not the book. It's all just my opinion.

[@kelman727]

It isn’t ‘trash’, and every author hopes to ‘sell out’ - edition after edition!

[@nickwyatt9498]

I recently reread A Clockwork Orange and it's amazing how fresh and new it seems - the language leaps off the page, the narrative grips you from the start. Burgess played down ACO after the film, but it's a little gem. What a writer (although many of his other novels - Inside Mr Enderby, Nothing Like The Sun - are actually more impressive. Just my opinion of course.

[@user-iv3gq1fj5k]

Donald trump of letters?

[@dengelke]

So easy to become dangerously drunk on the words of Burgess. His tongue is better than fine whiskey. However, I found Enderby to be disappointing.

[@dengelke]

'Dead Man in Deptford', though, is worth any reader's time.

[@Melvinshermen]

Dan Engelke i like the book but i know burgess is christen. But is just maybe i am wrong i just werid marlowe being in chruch become i think he was atheist or something like that

[@pamelacorbett8774]

I loved it and have reread it so many times. Also his autobiography, sheer heaven.

[@pfflyer3381]

Religion. The worst inherits one can obtain. hate and slavery. That's religion in a nutshell

[@rexmundi2237]

Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece, but Burgess was a great big bag of hot air, pomposity and pretentiousness, with literature's worst comb over.

[@kelman727]

I think Earthly Powers was his masterpiece, and the two memoirs were arguably the greatest short novels he ever wrote.

[@rexmundi2237]

What did you think of his spy parody Tremor of Intent? And the Enderby books have some nice Rabelaisian humour. The occasional memorable episode, parts greater than the whole.

[@kelman727]

Impressive, in that he took the genre seriously enough for the thing to hold together well, as good parodies must. The first of the Enderby books is the best. Never forgotten the description of the stepmother in that one.

[@kelman727]

It was also a complete myth about (a) the inoperable brain tumour, and (b) Burgess being told to cut the last chapter of A Clockwork Orange.

[@kelman727]

He wrote a screenplay for the Bond film. It was rejected. Most of his scripts were. Ironic when you consider most of his money came from penning them, whether they were filmed or not.