Little Wilson and Big God
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
These are Anthony Burgess's candid confessions: he was seduced at the age of nine by an older woman; whilst serving in Gibraltar in World War II he was thrown into jail on VE Day for calling Franco names; he once taught a group of Nazi socialites that the English equivalent of 'heil' was 'sod' and had them crying 'Sod Hitler'. Little Wilson and Big God moves from Moss Side to Malaya recalling Burgess's time as an education officer in the tropics, his tempestuous first marriage, his struggles with Catholicism and the beginning of his prolific writing life. Wise, self-deprecating and bristling with incident, this is a first-class memoir.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Filled with epigrammatic wit, written with seemingly total recall, this first installment of Burgess's autobiography is a thoroughly delightful memoir, the mellow recollections of a man who has come to terms with himself. He was born John Burgess Wilson, a Catholic with Irish blood raised in Protestant north England. Two recurrent themes are his "dubious relationship'' with his country and his veering away from Catholicism, ``a kind of nationality one is stuck with forever.'' With self-deprecating humor Burgess portrays himself as an anti-hero. Serving in Gibraltar in World War II, he was thrown into jail on VE Day for calling Franco names. Dylan Thomas slept with his first wife (but the drunken poet was allegedly impotent). Burgess writes well about the clash of cultures in Malaya, where he served as a teacher. This record of his first 42 years ends with a shock, a doctor's diagnosis that he had an inoperable brain tumor and had less than a year to live. His response was to shrug off the news and confront God by becoming a professional writer.
