Arts and Literature

Anthony Burgess

Applauding Anthony

The Burgess Project is a unique and pioneering production that’s hoping to bring new life to a diverse literary archive. Inspired by what’s been termed a psycho-geographic tour of a long-past Manchester, local writers will be taking audiences on a live-literature promenade tour of the city.

With expert advice from Burgess biographer, Andrew Biswell, the writing talent have been commissioned to produce new Burgessian works that will be presented live on Manchester’s streets, culminating in a city centre performance, with rich media footage of Burgess' real life such as photos, clips from his broadcasts and ringtones from his compositions being sent to the audience’s phones.

Be it a vignette instigated by a musical score, a short story prompted by a Greek translation, or a haiku description of a Manchester transformed by industrial redevelopment, this is a modern approach to Burgess’ epic collection.

And if that weren’t enough, there’s also an event for the author at the Whitworth Gallery, where the launch of Andrew Biswell’s biography of Burgess and some of the new writing involved in The Burgess Project will go hand-in-hand to celebrate the great writer’s work.

And as honoured as Burgess would probably be by it all, he would also smile at the choice of venue. As a small boy, Anthony was thrown out of the Whitworth for indecently assaulting a modernist sculpture. How times change!