The exclusive Malaysian school where the author taught finally allows his ode to be performed.
When Anthony Burgess (pic) returned to Malaysia in 1980 after a gap of 22 years to film an episode of the BBC series Writers and Places, he was not impressed. "The country and I," he announced, "have nothing to say to each other." The author of A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers died 17 years ago, but he is still being talked about in the land that launched his career as one of the most celebrated British novelists of the late 20th century. And last night, the capital, Kuala Lumpur, saw a historic royal unveiling of one of Burgess's first works, which was never published. Further, not only had it been forgotten, it had been deliberately suppressed."Ode: Celebration for a Malay College" was written while Burgess was a teacher at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, set up in 1905 to educate the Malay elite in the manner of a British public school and dubbed "the Eton of the East". Then going by his real name of J B Wilson, Burgess composed the verse and its accompanying melody for the college's golden jubilee in 1955, two years before the Federation of Malaya gained independence from Britain.
Within months, . ...
5 Dec 2010 | The Independent UK - read full report :
