Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917 and educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He spent six years in the British Army before becoming an education officer in Malaya and Brunei. After the success of his Malayan Trilogy, he became a full-time writer in 1959. He achieved a worldwide reputation as one of the leading novelists of his day, and one of the most versatile. In addition to 33 novels, he wrote stage plays, criticism, translations, two volumes of autobiography and a Broadway musical. He composed more than 250 musical works, including a piano concerto and a violin concerto for Yehudi Menuhin. His books include The Complete Enderby, Napoleon Symphony, Earthly Powers and A Clockwork Orange. Burgess died in London in 1993, a few months after the first production of Chatsky at the Almeida Theatre.