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Slovos and warbles

An ashtray shaped as a cog with a single cigar smouldering on its edge.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Anthony Burgess, the famed novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic – and one of our most famous alumni.

A man of many words and songs – or ‘slovos and warbles’, to borrow the language used by the characters in his most famous novel, A Clockwork Orange – Burgess wrote 33 novels, 25 works of non-fiction, two volumes of autobiography, three symphonies, more than 150 other musical works, reams of journalism and much more.

And he cut his writing teeth here, on campus, contributing verse and critical articles to student magazine The Serpent as World War II approached.

A typewrite holds a sheet of paper, with the quote

For ways to celebrate Burgess’s centenary, visit: www.anthonyburgess.org/burgess-100