A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess (the pseudonym of John Burgess Wilson, 1917–93), best-known for A Clockwork Orange (1962, published by The Folio Society in 2014), Earthly Powers (1981, shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and his Enderby novels (1963–84), wrote over 30 novels, including a fictional biography of Shakespeare, Nothing Like the Sun (1964), and composed many musical scores and libretti. His most prolific writing phase began when he was misdiagnosed with a brain tumour in Malaya in 1959 and given just months to live; the success he found allowed him to give up the career in education he had followed since joining the Army Educational Corps in 1940. Although he was born in Manchester and studied there, he lived much of his life abroad, claiming a warm climate was better for writing. In 1986 Burgess was made a Commandeur Des Arts et des Lettres of France.
Born in Edinburgh in 1958, Irvine Welsh trained as an electrician before moving to London where he studied computer science. He later returned to Edinburgh and took an MBA at Heriot-Watt University. A writer, screenwriter, journalist and DJ, Welsh’s first novel, Trainspotting (1993) remains his most successful work and was adapted for the screen by Danny Boyle. Other books include Marabou Stalk Nightmares (1995), Glue (2001) and Porno (2002); a sequel to Trainspotting.