Product Description

This is the first volume of Anthony Burgess' two-volume autobiography. Complete in itself it tells the story of a disaffected Manchester Catholic from his birth in 1917 up to the commencement, in 1959, of his career as a professional writer. Born Jack Wilson, Burgess grew up in one of the toughest areas of Manchester between the wars. His childhood in his stepmother's rowdy slummy pub, and later in a tobacconist's shop and an of-licence in the more respectable suburb of Moss Side, offered little in the way of love, though later, in the attic bedroom he shares with a succession of putative maids, he was precociously initiated into the physical side of it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316815 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Customer Reviews

Great introduction to Burgess and a treat for his fans
I have loved this book since its publication. I first started reading Anthony Burgess back in 1985 when I was sick, Earthly Powers was a mighty read that made me laugh, cry, think and most importantly learn. One of my friends once said that she found Burgess "too much of a show off" but that is one of the reasons that I love his work. This book indicates why he is such an eclectic writer with a broad subject range and a witty often sometimes wildly caustic sense of humour. His multi talents seem to have developed without any real help from his father and his description in the book of his rather loveless family life is very moving. There are some shocking scenes in this book often involving his very difficult first marriage and this theme is continued into the sequel. Nevertheless his honesty regarding this and yes his love for his wife mean that he never comes across as self pitying. Rather he is extremely good at mocking his own many achievements. Indeed his sense of fun and humour carry on throughout the book. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who loves Anthony Burgess but it is also a very readable introduction. Have a funferal with him!

A Great Piece of Autobiographical Misdirection and a Great Book
Reading Anthony Burgess is like chasing a butterfly after overeating at chinese buffet:- fun in small doses. (To be fair - only a fool would try and read this in one sitting.)

Burgess is never dull and is painfully polyglot - I wouldn't be suprised if he wrote notes to his milkman in Serbo-Croat. But Burgess' repeated admissions that his memory isn't brilliant lead me to think that many of yarns in this massive book are superb amalgams of fact & fiction.

We go from Manchester to Hove via Scotland, Gibraltar and Borneo. We have an odd battle between AB and an occultist; encounter a cynical old-boy network in WWII and learn a lot about Burgess' rather right-wing politics views.

In summary, a great literary autiobiograhy - arguably one of the top 5 produced by a a 20th Century British author.

This one's for the fans...
This book would be a three-and-a-half if the system so allowed. Burgess split his autobiography into two stand-alone books, divided by the moment of his rather enforced decision to become a professional writer. With this in mind, anyone coming to Burgess' autobiography from his other books is going to find the second part, 'You've Had Your Time', a much more relevant and interesting read, not least because the second half of Burgess' life is, for the biographical voyeur, by far the more entertaining and richly textured, and for the literature buff, definitely the more fascinating. However, if you read the second volume first, then this book really comes into its own - uncompromisingly honest, earthy and vital, and at times uproariously funny, Burgess burrows through his life in his own inimitable style, packed with trenchant intellectualism, offbeat erudition and manically dreadful puns - although more accessible after reading the second volume first, this is still a highly unusual autobiography of a frighteningly clever man, and a true one-off.