Roger Lewis, Anthony Burgess. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.

Roger Lewis, Anthony Burgess. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.

Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) is probably best-known for A Clockwork Orange (1962), subsequently made into a film directed by Stanley Kubrik (1971). An Education Officer in Malaya and Brunei between 1954 and 1959, Burgess's prodigious writings include Devil of a State (a novel about Brunei published in 1961) and two memoirs, Little Wilson and Big God (1987) and You've Had Your Time (1990). He also gave a talk on the "Rebellion in Brunei," broadcast by BBC radio on 14 December 1962.

Burgess was accompanied in Brunei by his first wife, Llewela (1920-1968), known as "Lynne." Her "delinquency" culminated at an ambassadorial reception, Mr. Lewis relates (p. 231), when she managed both to throw a punch at one of the Sultan of Brunei's cousins and to swear at the Duke of Edinburgh. Lewis surmises (p. 148) that Anthony and Lynne were lumbered with each other because nobody else would tolerate either of them; which, if true, would rather beg the question as to how Burgess was able to re-marry within a few months of his first wife's demise.

John Anthony Burgess Wilson, to give him his proper name, was a man of many and enviable talents. A prolific novelist, he was also a literary critic, autobiographer, essayist, and reviewer; a broadcaster and lecturer; a composer and lyricist; not to mention a sometime sergeant-major and school-teacher. Born at Manchester on 25 February 1917, he hardly knew his mother and sister, who both died in November 1918, whilst his father followed in April 1937. After a secondary education at Xaverian College in his home city, he proceeded to the University of Manchester, taking a Bachelor of Arts degree (IIi) in English Language and Literature (1940); honorary doctorates followed from Manchester in 1982, Birmingham in 1986, and St. Andrews in 1991. His literary talents were recognized in his Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL); and he was entered in Who's Who as early as 1964. Twice married, he died on 22 November 1993, to be survived by his widow, Liliana, Contessa Pasi Piani della Pergola.

In an attempt at a debunking biography, Roger Lewis portrays Dr. Burgess as a Bulwer Lytton-type figure, i.e., revered as a leading man of letters in his own day, but likely to be largely forgotten by posterity (p. 115n). Mr. Lewis knew the elderly Burgess personally and offers a smirking acknowledgement to him (p. 417). Originally a great admirer of the Lancastrian, Mr. Lewis now judges him to have been a charlatan (so how do we know that in due course Mr. Lewis will not decide that he was right first time round after all?). He does not appear to have received any assistance from the widow, nor (so far as one can tell) to have had access to Burgess's personal papers. The bibliography includes only one secondary work on Brunei (by James Bartholomew) and nothing at all with "Malaya" or "Malaysia" in the title. Hence we learn, for example, that Malaya was an "unhandy federation of British colonies" (sic); and that the FMS came into being in "1876" (sic) (p. 202). Mr. Lewis wonders "how tenable" Dr. Burgess's characterization of Malays might have been (p. 111); it might be advanced that, had Mr. Lewis known or read more about Malaya himself, he might have been in a position to offer an answer of his own. Burgess's success "came from impressing people who didn't quite know better" (p. 29). This remark might have a wider application than Mr. Lewis appears to suppose; and it is unlikely that his venomous book will provide the last word on the subject.

Born on 26 February 1962, Roger Lewis was formerly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He has written "numerous acclaimed biographies" and is "a prolific literary journalist" (blurb); on the latter point, the same might have been said about Dr. Burgess. (A. V. M. Horton)