Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess honoured
10th October 2012 - 11:23am
A Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess will be honoured in Manchester later today when a blue plaque is unveiled at the university where he studied.
It is the first British public monument to Burgess, who graduated from the University of Manchester in 1940 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the institution in 1987.
The author, who wrote 33 novels, 25 works of non-fiction, two volumes of autobiography, three symphonies and more than 250 other musical works, grew up in Harpurhey and Moss Side, before winning a scholarship to Xaverian College.
Today's ceremony, at Manchester's new School of Arts, Languages and Cultures building, will feature the world premier of a trumpet fanfare he wrote as a birthday present for his son, Andrew Burgess Wilson.
Dr Andrew Biswell, director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, said: 'I'm delighted that the university has decided to install the first British public monument to Burgess, 50 years after A Clockwork Orange was first published.'
Burgess, who died in 1993, studied English Literature at the University of Manchester from 1937 to 1940.
First published in 1962, A Clockwork Orange is his most famous work; a dark, dystopian vision of the future focusing on juvenile 'ultraviolence'.
The novel, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, was adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick in 1972.