As part of the 2017 Anthony Burgess Centenary celebrations, the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta and the Strada Stretta Concept are organising a three-day event in collaboration with the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and the Department of English.

Burgess (1917-1993) lived at 168, Main Street, Lija in the late 1960s and eventually left the island with his family after disagreements with local authorities. His Malta trial and tribulations are recorded in his personal memoirs published a couple of years before his passing.

Burgess lived in Main Street, Lija.

Burgess delivered a historical lecture at the University of Malta in 1970 at the Science Lecture Theatre called ‘Obscenity and the Arts’ that was transcribed and published by the Malta Library Association in 1973.

Today, Burgess’s official biographer and director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Andrew Biswell, will be delivering a keynote lecture as part of a symposium organised by the Department of Art and Art History. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (Department of Art and Art History) and Ivan Callus (Department of English) will present their research on Burgess and the representation of Malta in his literature.

The full three-day event will include the symposium entitled ‘Anthony Burgess and Malta: A Symposium’, a film screening of A Clockwork Orange and the premiere of piano pieces composed by Burgess himself, two of which he wrote in Malta, performed by pianist Tom Armitage.

For the symposium programme and to reserve a place, see: www.facebook.com/events/491431671219637/.

Today’s presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion at the Faculty of Arts Library, University of Malta, today at 6pm. Tomorrow, A Clockwork Orange will be screened at the Spazju Kreattiv cinema, St James Cavalier, Valletta,  at 6.30pm. It will be followed by a discussion. Tickets are free on a first-come, first-served basis. On Friday, a  piano concert premiering scores by Anthony Burgess will be performed by Tom Armitage at Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta at 8.30pm. For more information, call 2124 4339.