Paul Phillips is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University. He is the author of A Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess, published in 2010, and essays on Burgess published in six other books, including the Norton Critical Edition of A Clockwork Orange. He has led performances of many Burgess compositions in concert, including numerous premieres, and conducted the first commercial recording of Burgess's orchestral music, released by Naxos in 2016. Anthony Burgess (1917 1993) was a novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. Best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, he wrote more than sixty books of fiction, non-fiction and autobiography, as well as classical music, plays, film scripts, essays and articles. Burgess was born in Manchester, England and grew up in Harpurhey and Moss Side. He was educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He lived in Malaya, Malta, Monaco, Italy and the United States, and his books are still widely read all over the world.
'This book is often Burgess at his racily journalistic best: testy, peppery, pugnacious, swingeingly opinionated. He never minces his words, he is never a half-hearted fence sitter... Needless to say, Burgess at his best is wonderfully entertaining.' Michael Glover, The Tablet 'This edition is exemplary, offering not only footnotes, but also miniature essays providing context for pieces most of which evaded capture in Burgess's own collection of his journalism.' Paul Griffiths, Times Literary Supplement 'Whoever at Carcanet had the idea of collecting all of Burgess's writings about music - the editor Paul Phillips himself, I presume - deserves a medal... I don't think I can conceive of a more enjoyable book being published this year, and it's only February.' Nicholas Lezard, The Spectator 'This is a superb brick of a book, from the cover photo to the index' Dominic Green, The Washington Free Beacon