The Observer has published the work of several important writers, including George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Muriel Spark, Kenneth Tynan, Clive James, and Julian Barnes. But few were as distinctive as Anthony Burgess. He was truly a one-man band, a literary maverick, incorrigibly in tune with the spirit of the newspaper he always called “my paper”.
The Observer/Burgess prize, now celebrating its fifth year, is both a celebration of lively and original arts journalism and also a salute to a great English literary jack of all trades, the author of that dystopian classic, A Clockwork Orange, and an extraordinary body of work in several genres: fiction, screenplays, literary criticism, poetry, autobiography and belles-lettres.
It was at the Observer that Burgess was, perhaps, most himself. Always the literary buccaneer, he was an indefatigable man of letters. Blake Morrison, his literary editor, tells the story of sending out two review copies – a novel to Burgess, and a new book on China to an expert sinologist. When the books got muddled, the China expert phoned to alert Morrison to the mix-up. But not, however, before Burgess had filed his copy.
I remember him as a kind of a dormant literary volcano – projecting a distinct air of danger, wreathed in cigar smoke, liable at any minute to erupt with a flow of molten judgments. For 30 years, from 1962, he wrote more than 400 reviews for the Observer. Among his “discoveries” were Sylvia Plath and the late Umberto Eco. Burgess on a Sunday would range from airport fiction (one of his great loves), to a new biography of Wagner, to a book on linguistics (another passion). He was the ideal weekend reviewer: generous, entertaining, witty, informative and wise. As a critic, he was what Thomas Carlyle called a “professor of things in general”. In 1979, he was duly named critic of the year at the National Press Awards. In a moment worthy of A Clockwork Orange, his trophy was presented by Margaret Thatcher. Burgess died in 1993. I think we still miss him, and this prize helps fill the gap that he left.
The Observer/Burgess prize honours the most imaginative and original unpublished journalism across the fields of literature, theatre, film, music and art. Next year’s prize will have added significance as 2017 marks the Anthony Burgess centenary and the award will enter a new phase, in partnership with Free Word, the international centre for literature, literacy and free expression. As in previous years, we shall focus on arts criticism that reflects a lively interest in popular culture, and the collaboration with Free Word will bring additional rewards to the winners and runners-up: the winner will be awarded £3,000 and have their prize essay published in the Observer, as well as being offered a one-to-one mentorship with senior editors at the Guardian and the Observer. Two runners-up will each receive £500.
Entries will be judged by the writer and broadcaster Kevin Jackson; the acclaimed literary critic and historian Lara Feigel; Sarah Donaldson, the arts editor of the Observer; and the director of the Burgess Foundation, Andrew Biswell.
The Observer/Burgess prize is open to all authors of unpublished journalism. To enter, visit anthonyburgess.org. The closing date for entries is 30 November
