Carcanet Press - The Ink Trade

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'The title of journalist is probably very noble, but I lay no real claim to it. I am, I think, a novelist and a musical composer manqué: I make no other pretensions...' (Anthony Burgess)

Despite his modest claims, Anthony Burgess was an enormously prolific journalist. During his life he published two substantial collections of journalism, Urgent Copy (1968) and Homage to Qwert Yuiop (1986); a posthumous collection of occasional essays, One Man’s Chorus, was published in 1998. These collections are now out of print, and Burgess’s journalism, a key part of his prodigious output, has fallen into neglect.

The Ink Trade is a brilliant new selection of his reviews and articles, some savage, some crucial in establishing new writers, new tastes and trends. Between 1959 and his death in 1993 Burgess contributed to newspapers and periodicals around the world: he was provocative, informative, entertaining, extravagant, and always readable.

Editor Will Carr presents a wealth of unpublished and uncollected material.

Anthony Burgess

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 ... read more

Will Carr

Will Carr is Deputy Director at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, and has previously held senior roles at the Poetry School, Arts Council England, the Wordsworth Trust and the National Association for Literature Development. His edition of Anthony Burgess’s novel The Pianoplayers is published by Manchester University Press. ... read more

'Reading Burgess is pleasant, suggestive and fun.'

Rafa Latorre, El Mundo
'Reading the entertaining collection is like popping into a pub to spend an hour with an erudite, garrulous polymath. When you resurface, blinking towards the light, you look at things a little differently.'

N. J. McGarrigle, The Irish Times

'Offering the wisdom, sense of discovery and thrill of a dozen fine novels, The Ink Trade can be read as a practical handbook of reading, writing and reviewing, as a compendium of shrewd maxims and epigrammatic wit, and as a defence of the business of writing alongside a gently ironic lament to a writer's plight in the age of mass media and marketing. For those with a deeper interest in Burgess's bountiful output, it is also a vital source for his theories of literature and language, and how these animate his work.'

James Hopkin, NewStatesman

'One of the things that The Ink Trade shows is that Burgess, whose main fault as a reviewer was excessive compassion for his fellow authors, can still serve as a model for beginners and old hacks alike.'

Kevin Jackson, Literary Review

   'A commitment to the value of writing and literature comes across with vigour and rigour in "The Ink Trade".'

Sean Sheehan, The Prisma

  'The writings cover a range of subjects, including Metropolis, Fritz Lang's classic 1927 film, and fellow writers Ernest Hemingway and JB Priestley. They also include an unpublished 1991 lecture on censorship.... The essays span Burgess's journalistic career, including the Yorkshire Post, from which he was sacked after reviewing one of his own books - Inside Mister Enderby... The review, dated 1963, is included in The Ink Trade.'
Dalya Alberge, The Guardian
'Carr has achieved a heroic feat in the editing of this book. From the vast mountain of Burgess' non-fiction writing he has curated a selection that is intensely readable, pleasantly eclectic, and balances the published and the unpublished in such a way that those who have read all of Burgess' previous collections will enjoy this book as much as the newcomer.'
Joe Darlington, The Manchester Review of Books
'Language is definitely of top concern in these articles. He believed that language and wordplay should be of top concern to anyone... Burgess tried to adopt the role of valiant, though uncompromising, protector and defender of great literature.'
Blair James, The Manchester Review of Books
A 'Book to Look Out For in 2018' in Herald Scotland
Praise for Anthony Burgess 'This is a superb brick of a book, from the cover photo to the index'

Dominic Green, The Washington Free Beacon

  '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

'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

  '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 will doubtless be the definitive volume of Burgess's poetry for some time'

Rob Spence, Shiny New Books

'In scale and personality there is plenty of Burgess here: the philosophical musing, the encyclopedic obscurity, the wilful and occasionally jagged use of language... The reader will gain no particularly new insight into the feelings of the writer, but they will find the ideas which drove much of his fiction distilled, distorted and put to play... his Collected Poems demonstrate to the reader that poetry, with its linguistic freedom and its inherent allusiveness, was always at the heart of his output'

Simon Rennie, Times Literary Supplement

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The Ink Trade Selected Journalism 1961-1993 Anthony Burgess Edited by Will Carr 10% off eBook (EPUB) Categories: 20th Century, British Imprint: Lives and Letters Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (292 pages) (Pub. May 2018) 9781784103927 Out of Stock eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. May 2018) 9781784103934 £15.99 £14.39 Digital access available through Exact Editions To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Excerpt Author Reviews 'The title of journalist is probably very noble, but I lay no real claim to it. I am, I think, a novelist and a musical composer manqué: I make no other pretensions...' (Anthony Burgess) Despite his modest claims, Anthony Burgess was an enormously prolific journalist. During his life he published two substantial collections of journalism, Urgent Copy (1968) and Homage to Qwert Yuiop (1986); a posthumous collection of occasional essays, One Man’s Chorus, was published in 1998. These collections are now out of print, and Burgess’s journalism, a key part of his prodigious output, has fallen into neglect. The Ink Trade is a brilliant new selection of his reviews and articles, some savage, some crucial in establishing new writers, new tastes and trends. Between 1959 and his death in 1993 Burgess contributed to newspapers and periodicals around the world: he was provocative, informative, entertaining, extravagant, and always readable. Editor Will Carr presents a wealth of unpublished and uncollected material. Anthony Burgess 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 ... read more Will Carr Will Carr is Deputy Director at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, and has previously held senior roles at the Poetry School, Arts Council England, the Wordsworth Trust and the National Association for Literature Development. His edition of Anthony Burgess’s novel The Pianoplayers is published by Manchester University Press. ... read more 'Reading Burgess is pleasant, suggestive and fun.' Rafa Latorre, El Mundo 'Reading the entertaining collection is like popping into a pub to spend an hour with an erudite, garrulous polymath. When you resurface, blinking towards the light, you look at things a little differently.' N. J. McGarrigle, *The Irish Times* 'Offering the wisdom, sense of discovery and thrill of a dozen fine novels, The Ink Trade can be read as a practical handbook of reading, writing and reviewing, as a compendium of shrewd maxims and epigrammatic wit, and as a defence of the business of writing alongside a gently ironic lament to a writer's plight in the age of mass media and marketing. For those with a deeper interest in Burgess's bountiful output, it is also a vital source for his theories of literature and language, and how these animate his work.' James Hopkin, NewStatesman 'One of the things that The Ink Trade shows is that Burgess, whose main fault as a reviewer was excessive compassion for his fellow authors, can still serve as a model for beginners and old hacks alike.' Kevin Jackson, Literary Review 'A commitment to the value of writing and literature comes across with vigour and rigour in "The Ink Trade".' Sean Sheehan, The Prisma 'The writings cover a range of subjects, including Metropolis, Fritz Lang's classic 1927 film, and fellow writers Ernest Hemingway and JB Priestley. They also include an unpublished 1991 lecture on censorship.... The essays span Burgess's journalistic career, including the Yorkshire Post, from which he was sacked after reviewing one of his own books - Inside Mister Enderby... The review, dated 1963, is included in The Ink Trade.' Dalya Alberge, The Guardian 'Carr has achieved a heroic feat in the editing of this book. From the vast mountain of Burgess' non-fiction writing he has curated a selection that is intensely readable, pleasantly eclectic, and balances the published and the unpublished in such a way that those who have read all of Burgess' previous collections will enjoy this book as much as the newcomer.' Joe Darlington, The Manchester Review of Books 'Language is definitely of top concern in these articles. He believed that language and wordplay should be of top concern to anyone... Burgess tried to adopt the role of valiant, though uncompromising, protector and defender of great literature.' Blair James, The Manchester Review of Books A 'Book to Look Out For in 2018' in Herald Scotland Praise for Anthony Burgess 'This is a superb brick of a book, from the cover photo to the index' Dominic Green, The Washington Free Beacon '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 '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 '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 will doubtless be the definitive volume of Burgess's poetry for some time' Rob Spence, Shiny New Books 'In scale and personality there is plenty of Burgess here: the philosophical musing, the encyclopedic obscurity, the wilful and occasionally jagged use of language... The reader will gain no particularly new insight into the feelings of the writer, but they will find the ideas which drove much of his fiction distilled, distorted and put to play... his Collected Poems demonstrate to the reader that poetry, with its linguistic freedom and its inherent allusiveness, was always at the heart of his output' Simon Rennie, Times Literary Supplement	Share this... 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The Ink Trade

Selected Journalism 1961-1993

Anthony Burgess

Edited by Will Carr