Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester, England on February 25th, 1917. His complete name is John Anthony Burgess Wilson. He was born with the name of John Wilson given to him by his father, a cashier and pub pianist, and his mother, a musician and dancer. Burgess also had a sister that died next to him, when he was a baby, from the Spanish flu. There are three other facets in his life that have a great influence on his writing. These factors are the political events, the personal events, and the significant people in his life (Drabble 145).
Anthony Burgess lived through a time period that consisted of a major war. This was World War II that went on during the early 1940's. Burgess served as a solider in the war for six years at the Royal Army Medical Corps. This period and time of war in his life could have influenced his writing topics of the many books he has written. The visions that he saw could have come back later and generated ideas for books. A Clockwork Orange, which was written about an extraordinary amount of violence and high technology, was most likely influenced by his past war days. World War II was the most significant political event during his life that influenced his writing (Bohemian 1).
Burgess attended Xaverian College and Manchester University, where he studied literature and the English language before graduating in 1940. Throughout Burgess's life, he held a couple of different occupations. Within the four-year span from 1946-1950, he taught at Birmingham University, was a teacher at Banbury Grammar School, and also worked for the ministry of education. However, he primarily studied music and it's composition. Although he spent most of his time studying music, all of his studies in the English language and also literature helped to influence him to become a writer. Burgess's past involving so many works of writing and grammar helped him become a good author and also allowed him to be inspired by other authors" ideas (Morris 1-2).