Ninety-Nine Novels, Series 2, releases weekly from the 7 September 2022. 

This series, we’ll be travelling to alternate universes and dystopian futures, exploring history and legend, and setting sail for exotic locations such as Miami, Cuba and Jerusalem. Along the way, we’ll meet a second world war flight crew, a terrifying dictator, a variety of priests, wizards and knights, and, of course, a world-famous super-spy. We’ll be guided on this journey by experts, who illuminate each of the novels and their authors.

Ninety-Nine Novels is a podcast by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, and is for anyone interested in the greatest novels of the last century, and anyone keen to discover hidden gems.

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In this episode we’re looking at the state of Literary London during the Second World War with writer Will Loxley.

Will’s book Writing in the Dark: Bloomsbury, the Blitz and Horizon Magazine, brings to life the cultural and intellectual environment that influenced some of Anthony Burgess’s most defining thoughts about writing and literature. Many of the writers that feature in this story, such as Stephen Spender, George Orwell, Dylan Thomas and Evelyn Waugh, had the development of their creative lives arrested by the war. This was the same fate as Burgess, who felt he had been exiled to a military post in Gibraltar. But all of these writers tried to make sense of the war through literature and what they produced remains some of the most important work of the twentieth century.

Will Loxley is a writer based in Sheffield. Writing in the Dark is his first book and was called ‘energetic and enthused’ by the Times. He is currently working on his second book, A Novel Idea: The Race to Master the English Novel from Daniel Defoe to Jane Austen. 

Will can be found on Twitter @WillLoxley

Writing in the Dark is published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson and is now available in paperback from your favourite place to buy books.

For more about Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support the work of the Burgess Foundation, visit our website.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s June 2022 and we’re celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses with a series of podcasts exploring Anthony Burgess’s love of the novel. 

In this episode, Andrew Biswell of the Burgess Foundation talks to David Collard about his book Multiple Joyce, a study of Joyce’s cultural legacy over one hundred essays that often reveal unexpected connections and insights into what Joyce and his work means for modern audiences.

David Collard is a writer, reviewer, researcher, editor and broadcaster. His writing regularly appears in the Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review, and he has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4. His first book was About a Girl: A Readers’ Guide to Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing. He is currently working on books about WH Auden, the New Review, and a memoir of his upbringing as a reluctant Jehovah’s Witness.

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LINKS:

David Collard's website

David Collard on Twitter

Multiple Joyce by David Collard at Sagging Meniscus Press

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

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If you have enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s June 2022 and we’re celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses with a series of podcasts exploring Anthony Burgess’s love of the novel. 

In this episode, the Burgess Foundation's Will Carr tells the story of Blooms of Dublin, Burgess's musical adaptation of Ulysses which was first performed in Dublin in 1982 to mark the centenary of Joyce's birth. The episode contains recordings of Burgess talking about how he adapted such a complex novel into a stage musical, an interview with Frank Grimes, who played Stephen Dedalus in the production, and new recordings of several of the songs from Blooms of Dublin.

The songs performed in this episode are:

'Today' – a song that celebrates Bloomsday, 16 June 1904, the day on which the novel takes place. This takes place on a Dublin street. Leopold Bloom, a baritone, sings a relaxed ballad in which he anticipates meeting someone new on this otherwise ordinary day. Owen Gilhooly sings the part of Bloom.

'Four O'Clock Tea' – Leopold Bloom’s wife is Molly Bloom, a professional soprano singer. While Bloom is out in the street, she is waking up in bed, and her song ‘Four O’Clock Tea’ anticipates meeting her lover that afternoon, Blazes Boylan. Bloom surprises her halfway through with her breakfast on a tray, and is furious to learn that Boylan will be visiting. Rachel Croash sings the part of Molly.

'Paris is a Lamp Lit for Lovers' – Stephen Dedalus, who is visiting a brothel with Bloom, describes his adventures in Paris, and the music moves from a gentle ballad to a lively cancan, and back again. The part of Stephen is sung by Philip O’Connor.

'Final Scene' – an extract from the 17-minute finale of Blooms of Dublin, sung by Molly Bloom as she reprises many of the numbers of the play and mixes them with new material in a musical recreation of Joyce's famous virtuoso monologue that ends the novel. Once again, Rachel Croash takes the part of Molly.

The piano on all of these songs is played by David Jones. The musical director is Richard Strivens and the sound engineer is Sam Gee.

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For more information on Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support our work, visit the Burgess Foundation online.

Don't forget to leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s June 2022 and we’re celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses with a series of podcasts exploring Anthony Burgess’s love of the novel. In this episode, Andrew Biswell of the Burgess Foundation looks at Burgess’s formative visits to Dublin, and how his passion for Joyce’s work led to his television documentary, Silence, Exile and Cunning.

Find out how Burgess first discovered the work of James Joyce, how it chimed with his own experiences as a lapsed Catholic, and how he ended up visiting the ruins of Leopold Bloom's home in Dublin. You can also hear Burgess read from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and hear Burgess's thoughts on Joyce and Dublin in archive recordings.

This episode was written and narrated by Andrew Biswell

For more on Anthony Burgess and to find out how you can support the work of the Burgess Foundation, visit our website.

If you have enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave us a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we explore the art of translation. Andrew Biswell from the Burgess Foundation talks to Burgess's German translator, Ludger Tolksdorf, who has recently completed his translation of Anthony Burgess's The Malayan Trilogy.

Ludger is based in Bonn, Germany, and works as a translator and literary editor. The first volume of his translation of The Malayan Trilogy, Jetzt ein Tiger, in out now from Elsinor. The second and third volumes Der Feind in der Decke and Die Betten im Orient will be published by Elsinor in Spring 2022.

Ludger's latest book as editor is Sommerleithe by Klaus Weise, and is available now from Elsinor.

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LINKS:

Jetzt ein Tiger by Anthony Burgess, translated by Ludger Tolksdorf, at Elsinor (German)

Sommerleithe by Klaus Weise, edited by Ludger Tolksdorf, at Elsinor (German) 

Ludger Tolksdorf's website (German)

International Anthony Burgess Foundation 

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If you have enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to leave a review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and 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)

James Walker's Nottingham Essay on BBC Radio 3 (YouTube)

The Sillitoe Trail

Dawn of the Unread, an online graphic novel celebrating Nottingham's literary history, by James Walker

The Loneliness of the Lockdown Runner, an Instagram project by James Walker

James Walker's comic series Whatever People Say I Am

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

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

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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)

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

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

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of the Burgess Foundation speaks to academic and writer Will Ghosh about A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, a novel Burgess described as ‘beautifully composed […] with an almost Conradian power of description.’

First published in 1979, A Bend in the River is a disturbing work which explores the violence and disorder which often go hand in hand with aggressively nationalistic regimes. It is a complex novel about the difficulties of newly independent nations, and the ambiguous legacies of the colonial period.

Will Ghosh teaches Victorian and Modern Literature at Jesus College in the University of Oxford. His research focuses on Caribbean and South Asian literatures after 1945. He has written extensively about VS Naipaul, and published his first book, VS Naipaul, Caribbean Writing and Caribbean Thought, in 2020.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

By V.S. Naipaul:

Miguel Street (1959)

A House for Mr Biswas (1961)

The Middle Passage (1962)

The Mimic Men (1967)

Guerillas (1975)

A Congo Diary (1980)

Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (1981)

The Enigma of Arrival (1987)

India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990)

A Way in the World (1994)

Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (1998)

By others:

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (1901)

The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian by Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1951)

The Novel Now by Anthony Burgess (1967)

The Dragon Can't Dance by Earl Lovelace (1979)

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (1979)

Roots by Edward Kamau Braithwaite (1986)

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (1995)

The 100 Best Novels in English by Robert McCrum (2016)

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LINKS:

VS Naipaul, Caribbean Writing and Caribbean Thought by Will Ghosh at Oxford University Press

Will Ghosh's introduction to V.S. Naipaul

Will Ghosh in conversation with Homi K. Bhabha

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

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

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

The Iris Murdoch Society

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

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

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.