Wilson was an English novelist and critic.
He was born in a small house inHarpurhey and was the son of a bookkeeper and part-time pianist. He was foundlying in his cot when he was a baby with his mother and sister dead beside him. They were said to have been victims of the Spanish Flu. Anthony attended theBishop Bilsborrow- Primary School, Moss Side, Xavier College and lastlyManchester University. He then spent six years as a wartime soldier and after hewent into education, he became an education officer in Malaya and Brunei.
In1959 he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, so he became a professionalwriter, hoping to provide for his wife. The diagnoses turned out to be wrong;however, he decided to stick with it and he wrote over thirty novels. AnthonyBurgess was a very well-rounded artist. He drew, wrote novels, was a musicianand produced a lot of works.
At the age of twelve, his drawings were beingaccepted by national newspapers and at fourteen, he taught himself to play thepiano and compose music. He wrote two symphonies, concertos, songs, sonatas andincidental music for plays. In his very first year he wrote five novels, acouple of plays and several radio scripts and stories. He had all sorts ofdifferent topics, themes and styles. Of all his writings, the most well-knownwas and still is A Clockwork Orange.
It is also his most controversial work. AClockwork Orange was his eighth novel and was published in 1962. Although thiswas among his best works, he had his own thoughts on it. In an interview done in1981 in “Modern Fiction Studies” Burgess was quoted, “I’m notparticularly proud of A Clockwork Orange because it has all the thoughts I railagainst in fiction. It’s didactic.
It tends to pornography. ” John AnthonyBurgess Wilson died in 1993 and will always be remembered by the remains of someof his classic works.
