Professor Andrew Biswell
Professor of Modern Literature
My profile
Biography
I am the Professor of Modern Literature at MMU.
I have taught English and Creative Writing at the university since 2003.
My academic work includes book publications for academic and commercial publishers, exhibitions, broadcasting for television and radio, articles for newspapers and literary journals, and electronic publication of research materials.
I am the editor of A Clockwork Orange: The Restored Text. The electronic edition is published by Random House Digital. The print edition is published by William Heinemann (UK hardback), W.W. Norton (US hardback) and Penguin Classics (UK and Commonwealth paperback).
Current and recent publishing projects include an ongoing scholarly edition of the works of Anthony Burgess for Manchester University Press, a chapter in a new book about Stanley Kubrick, and a monograph about British writers of the 1930s.
Academic and professional qualifications
BA, MA, PGCE (Leicester), Ph.D (Warwick)
Other academic service (administration and management)
Professor of Modern Literature. Currently on part-time secondment to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.
External examiner roles
Postgraduate theses examined at University of East Anglia, Glasgow University, Cambridge University and University of York.
Community, charity and NGO links
Director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation since 2010.
Government and industry links
Winner of the 2006 Portico Prize for The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, published by Picador.
Shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex Awards in 2006.
Shortlisted for the FutureBook Prize for Digital Innovation in 2013.
Teaching
Why do I teach?
My teaching at MMU is led by my enthusiasms as a reader and researcher. Most of my teaching is in the areas of creative writing and modern/contemporary literature in English, with particular reference to fiction and poetry.
Postgraduate teaching
I have taught on the MA and MFA Creative Writing programmes, on campus and online, since 2003. I was the academic director of the Manchester Writing School from 2006 until 2010. Since 2020 I have taught a new elective unit on Utopias and Dystopias.
I am interested in supervising PhD students with research interests in Anthony Burgess; creative non-fiction; modern and contemporary fiction; utopia and dystopia; place writing; biography; the history of the essay; or any aspect of 20th-century writing, especially the literature and culture of the 1930s (especially W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Evelyn Waugh).
Supervision
- Postmodernism/metafiction and creative writing
- The literature of the Moors Murders
- The poetry of Anthony Burgess
- David Foster Wallace
- Dystopian fiction and creative writing
- Anthony Burgess in America
Research outputs
Principal areas of research include utopias and dystopias; twentieth-century world writing in English; creative writing (fiction, poetry, life-writing); contemporary novels, literary journalism, and literary biography; British writers of the 1930s.
Since 1995 I have been researching the life and work of Anthony Burgess. Publications include a biography, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, and a critical edition of A Clockwork Orange published by William Heinemann and Penguin (paperback) and by W.W. Norton in New York. With my colleague Paul Wake, I am a general editor of the Irwell Edition of the Works of Anthony Burgess, published by Manchester University Press (2017 to present). I prepared the introduction and annotations for Burgess’s first novel, A Vision of Battlements, for the Irwell Edition. Other recent publications are Obscenity and the Arts (Pariah Press), No End to Enderby (LUX), and new essays on Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick and Burgess as literary biographer.
I am interested in supervising doctoral work on any aspect of 20th-century or contemporary literature.
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Griboyedov, A., Moliere, J.B.P., Biswell, A. (2023) Chatsky and Miser, Miser! Two Plays by Anthony Burgess. London: Salamander Street.
(2023) Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange. Springer International Publishing.
Biswell, A., Burgess, A., Gato, V. (2020) A Laranja Mecânica. Alfaguara.
Burgess, A., Biswell, A. (2020) La Naranxa Mecanica. Trabe.
Burgess, A. (2018) Obscenity & The Arts - Anthony Burgess. Pariah Press.
BISWELL, (2017) A Vision of Battlements.
Burgess, A. (2016) Mechanický pomeranč.
Burgess, A. (2014) A laranja mecânica. ALFAGUARA.
Burgess, A., Biswell, A. (2013) A Clockwork Orange. Critical Edition. Penguin Classics.
Burgess, A., Biswell, A. (2013) 1985. Profile Books.
Burgess, A., Biswell, A. (2013) One Hand Clapping. Profile Books.
Burgess, A. (2013) Tremor of Intent. Serpent's Tail.
Burgess, A. (2013) Clockwork Orange : [Roman] ; die Urfassung.
Burgess, A. (2012) A Clockwork Orange (Restored Text). W. W. Norton.
Burgess, A. (2012) A Clockwork Orange.
Biswell, A. (2006) The Real Life of Anthony Burgess. Pan Macmillan.
Symposium, A.B.C.I., Biswell, A. (2006) Anthony Burgess Autobiographer. Presses de l'Université d'Angers.
Biswell, A.M. (2005) The real life of Anthony Burgess. London: Picador.
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Chapters in books
Biswell, A. (2023) '“A major statement on the contemporary human condition”: Anthony Burgess and the aftermath of A Clockwork Orange.' In Melia, M., Orgill, G. (ed.) Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 47-65.
Eatough, G., Sutcliffe, S., Bowers, P., Biswell, A. (2020) 'Anthony Burgess as Time Traveller.' No End to Enderby. LUX,
Biswell, A. (2019) 'Writing Imperial Decline in South East Asia.' The Oxford History of the Novel in English Volume 10: the Novel in South and South East Asia Since 1945. Oxford University Press,
Biswell, A. (2019) 'Writing Imperial Decline in South East Asia.' The Oxford History of the Novel in English Volume 10: the Novel in South and South East Asia Since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 383-397.
Biswell, A. (2012) 'Anthony Burgess, Christopher Marlowe and Tamburlaine.' In Woodroffe, G. (ed.) Marlowe, Shakespeare, Burgess. Angers: Presses de l’Université d’Angers, pp. 95-105.
Biswell, A. (2011) ''Composition'.' A Clockwork Orange Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts Criticism. W W Norton & Company Incorporated,
Biswell, A.M. (2009) 'English Anxieties.' Cardiff: Photoworks,
Biswell, A. (2006) 'The Brides of Enderby.' In Woodroffe, G. (ed.) in Burgess and (Auto)Biography. Angers: Presses de l’Université d’Angers, pp. 203-208.
Biswell, A. (2006) 'Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee.' Booker Prize Novels: 1969-2005. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, pp. 305-312.
Biswell, A. (2006) 'The Letters of Anthony Burgess.' In Woodroffe, G. (ed.) Burgess and (Auto)Biography. Angers: Presses de l’Université d’Angers, pp. 203-208.
Biswell, A.M. (2004) 'Lo concludiamo qua? Nuovo succo da "A Clockwork Orange".' Turin: Lindau,
Biswell, A. (2003) 'A. L. Kennedy.' British and Irish Novelists since 1960. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, pp. 196-204.
Biswell, A. (2003) 'Editing and Publishing A Clockwork Orange.' In Vernadakis, E., Woodroffe, G. (ed.) Portraits of the Artist in A Clockwork Orange. Angers: Presses de l’Université d’Angers, pp. 15-26.
Biswell, A. (2001) 'Peter Ackroyd.' British Novelists since 1960: Fourth Series. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, pp. 3-14.
Biswell, A. (2001) 'William Boyd.' British Novelists since 1960: Fourth Series. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, pp. 31-40.
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Journal articles
Biswell, A. (2023) 'Anthony Burgess as Literary Biographer.' The AnaChronisT, 20pp. 10-25.
Biswell, A. (2021) 'Kubrick and Burgess: The Untold Story.' Sight and Sound, 31(9) pp. 30-41.
Biswell, A. (2018) 'Reading Peter Scupham.' PN Review, 44(6 [242]) pp. 61-62.
Biswell, A. (2016) 'From the Burgess Archive: 06: James Joyce Playing-Cards.' PN Review, 42(6 [230]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
Biswell, A. (2016) 'From the Burgess Archive: 05: A Shakespeare Song.' PN Review, 42(5 [229]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
Biswell, A. (2016) 'From the Burgess Archive: 04: An Olivetti Typewriter.' PN Review, 42(4 [228]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
Biswell, A. (2016) 'From the Burgess Archive: 03: A Sculpture by Milton Hebald.' PN Review, 42(3 [227]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
Biswell, A. (2015) 'From the Burgess Archive: 02: A Wicked Pack of Cards.' PN Review, 42(2 [226]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
Biswell, A. (2015) 'From the Anthony Burgess Archive: (1) A Musical Matchbox.' PN Review, 42(1 [225]) pp. inside back cover-inside back cover.
GARCIA DOS SANTOS NETO, A. (2014) 'INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW BISWELL.' REVISTA ESCRITA, 2014(18)
Davidson, P. (2000) 'Seneca in English.' CLASSICAL REVIEW, 50(1) pp. 300-301.
Press and media
Media appearances or involvement
As a journalist, I have written for the Guardian, Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Literary Review, Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Education Supplement, Boston Globe, New Statesman and Sight and Sound.
TELEVISION AND RADIO
Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 31 March 2022. Interview about 60 years of A Clockwork Orange.
The Essay: Five Kinds of Beethoven, BBC Radio 3, 24 September 2020.
Front Row Late, BBC Two, 20 April 2018.
Saturday Classics, BBC Radio 3, 25 February 2017.
The Manchester Ballads, BBC Radio 4, 19 January 2016.
Can a Computer Write Shakespeare?, BBC Radio 4, 13 October 2014.
Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3, 28 November 2012.
Interviewed on Channel 4 News, 10 November 2012.
On Point with Tom Ashbrook: ‘Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange’, National Public Radio (US), 1 October 2012.
Open Book, BBC Radio 4, 16 September 2012.
Archive on Four: A Clockwork Archive, BBC Radio 4, 18 August 2012.
The Beauty of Books, Tern TV/BBC 4, 28 February 2011.
Chance Would Be a Fine Thing, adapted for radio by Andrew Biswell and Nick Holmes, BBC Radio 3, 22 October 2010.
The Manchester Writers, BBC Radio 4, 12 August 2010.
Nigel Balchin: The Small Back Room Boy, BBC Radio 4, 24 April 2008.
Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 19 October 2006.