Looking at the life of Anthony Burgess, it becomes clear why he wrote the dystopian satire 'A Clockwork Orange,' where his views on society as utterly horrible or degraded come alive in his main character.
When he was a one year old his mother and his eight year old sister passed away after succumbing to the Spanish Flu. He believed his father resented him for having survived.
He was often bullied as a child. "I was either distractedly persecuted or ignored. I was one despised ... ragged boys in gangs would pounce on the well-dressed like myself," he recalled. He also remembered not fitting in at school.
He loathed authority and was often in trouble during his army years. He was pursued by military police of the British Armed Forces in 1941 for desertion after overstaying his leave from Morpeth military base.
During the blackout his pregnant wife Lynne was beaten and raped by four American deserters in her home. She lost the child. Anthony was denied leave to see her.
He taught speech and drama in Gibraltar together with Ann McGlinn. Her communist ideology had a major influence on his famous novel 'A Clockwork Orange.'
Burgess was an accomplished composer and said: "I wish people would think of me as a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side."
