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‘Like his subject, Lewis is an intellectual showman, a connoisseur of the arcane, a collector of titillating trivia . . . Fascinated with Burgess’ consummate fakery and repelled by his control-freakery, Lewis nonetheless succeeds in humanising this sacred monster.’ Christopher Silvester, Daily Express
The author of over sixty books – most famously A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess, Roger Lewis argues, was the writer as faker and prankster who lived, like an actor, by deception and illusion. Tracking his quarry from Manchester to Malaya to Malta to Monte Carlo, Lewis assesses Burgess’ struggles and grudges and in the process creates a deliriously kaleidoscopic modern classic about an antic disposition. Outrageously funny and irreverent, Anthony Burgess explores the divisions that characterised its subject and conjures a cast of drunks, nymphomaniacs, egotists, journalists and famous twentieth-century authors.
‘Lewis himself has a novelist’s eye for detail . . . Will be read long after Burgess’ works have vanished into oblivion.’ Jeremy Lewis, Mail on Sunday
‘This book abounds with such sublime moments of resurrection, on the wings of Lewis’ mordant humour. The two of them wrestle for every page. Is this fission or fusion? Either way the energy release is enormous.’ Duncan Fallowell, The Times
