A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess:
Full name- John Anthony Burgess
Wilson
Born 25th Febuary 1917
His mother dies in 1918 when
he was 1 years of age
Catholic family
Lived in suburban Manchester
Lower middle class; family
Was bought up during the Great Depression and the Wilsons
were considered fairly well of
His During this time, Burgess's father worked as a bookkeeper
for a beef market by day, and in the evening played piano at a
public house (had to have two jobs to support his family)
His father remarried. They owned one of license and 4
properties
His father died at 55 however leaving John no inheritance
He attended St. Edmund's Elementary School before moving
on to Bishop Bilsborrow Memorial Elementary School, both
Catholic schools, in Moss Side
Good grades resulted in a place at Xaverian College
Interested in music, self taught himself piano at 15
Attended Victoria University of Manchester and studies English
language and English literature
He graduated and whilst at the university met his wife and
married her in 1942
He was a Sargent in the military at 1942
At his stationing in Gibraltar, he worked as a training college
lecturer in speech and drama, teaching alongside Ann McGlinn
in German, French and Spanish. McGlinn's communist ideology
would have a major influence on his later novel A Clockwork
Orange.
He then went on to having a teaching career which lead to
becoming a British Colonial Service teacher and education
officer
When teaching he collapsed and was diagnosed with an
inoperable brain tumour and was given a year to live. He
started to write novels to provide for his widow
He was however sufering from the efects of prolonged heavy
drinking (and associated poor nutrition), of the oftenoppressive south-east Asian climate, of chronic constipation,
and of overwork and professional disappointment.
Burgess was invalided home in 1959 and relieved of his
position. He spent some time in the neurological ward of a
London hospital where he underwent cerebral tests that found
no illness.

He decided to become a full time writer as his wife inherited

money from her deceased farther and over 6 years they had
progresses a reasonable amount of savings
He took a sea voyage with his wife; Baltic Line from Tilbury to
Leningrad in June 1961. He wrote in his autobiographical
You've Had Your Time (1990), that in re-learning Russian at
this time, he found inspiration for the Russian-based slang
Nadsat that he created for A Clockwork Orange.
He was also a English critic in 1963 and critically alaysed and
critisied many works which included Shakespeare
He was also a screed writer and musician
Burgess was a Conservative (though, as he clarified in an
interview with The Paris Review, his political views could be
considered "a kind of anarchism" since his ideal of a "Catholic
Jacobite imperial monarch" wasn't practicable), a (lapsed)
Catholic and Monarchist, harbouring a distaste for all
republics. He believed that socialism for the most part was
"ridiculous" but did "concede that socialized medicine is a
priority in any civilized country today."
To avoid the 90% tax the family would have incurred because
of their high income, they left Britain
He travelled around a lot
Later he settled in a house from his birth place and died of
lung cancer in 1993