Burgess Events for June 2024
Find out what's happening at the Anthony Burgess Foundation in June 2024
Highlight Events
Bloomsday 2024 at the Burgess Foundation | Friday 14 June 2024, 6pm, free.
Each year the Burgess Foundation celebrates Bloomsday, the date on which James Joyce set his novel Ulysses: 16 June 1904. ‘Bloomsday’ is so called because two of the book’s protagonists are named Leopold and Molly Bloom.
Joyce was one of Anthony Burgess’s strongest influences, and Ulysses was his favourite novel. Burgess responded to Joyce’s writing in two non-fiction books, a stage musical, and countless newspaper articles. He wrote the forward to a Joyce-themed cookery book and presented three TV documentaries about Joyce. His novel Earthly Powers features Joyce as a character and includes a performance of Blooms of Dublin, his musical based on Ulysses.
As Bloomsday falls on a Sunday this year, we will be holding our celebration on Friday 14 June 2024, with the generous support of the Consulate General of Ireland.
The Bloomsday social, including music, speeches, a short film, and traditional Irish hospitality, will run from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester, M1 5BY.
Tickets for the Bloomsday social are free, but numbers are strictly limited, so please book your place via the link (more information).
Unboxing Anthony Burgess | Saturday 22 June 2024, 1pm, Free
Another chance to explore the life and work of Anthony Burgess in this live event at the author’s archive in Manchester. Burgess was a prolific novelist, composer, journalist and playwright. He grew up above a pub in Manchester, then travelled the world as a solider and teacher before publishing his first novel at the age of 39.
The archive at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation tells the story of a writer who never stopped working, despite illness and controversy. As he writes in his autobiography, Little Wilson and Big God: ‘Wedged as we are between two eternities of idleness, there is no excuse for being idle now.’
The Foundation holds manuscripts, photographs, typewriters, vinyl records, notebooks, wine bottles, pianos, a clay bust of his head, and a seemingly endless collection of literary and artistic paraphernalia. Come and be surprised.
This is the final event in our current ‘Unboxing Anthony Burgess’ series.
📦 This event on Saturday 22 June 2024 falls in the same week as Bloomsday, and will celebrate the works of Anthony Burgess’s artistic hero, James Joyce, through objects and manuscripts in the Burgess Archive.
This event will start at 1:00 pm. Tickets are free, but numbers are limited, to allow close-up access to the artefacts. Therefore booking is essential.
Events at the Burgess Foundation in Manchester
Literature: Dave Haslam with Jez Kerr & Martin Moscrop | 3 June, 6:45pm, £8.25 | Dave Haslam introduces his new book, Strawberry and the Big Apple: Grace Jones in Stockport, 1980, about the day in 1980 when Grace Jones visited Stockport to meet A Certain Ratio (more information).
Talk: Manchester Lit & Phil Presents ‘Spying Through a Glass Darkly’ | 6 June, 6:30pm, £15 | Can espionage be ethical? Professor Cécile Fabre will argue that espionage is morally justified, indeed morally mandatory (more information).
Talk: Manchester Lit & Phil Presents ‘Beethoven, Bayreuth, Bernstein and Brexit – 200 years of the Ninth Symphony’ | 11 June, 6:30pm, £15 | A deep dive into the history of one of the most famous pieces of classical music, and its relevance to today’s culture and politics by Dr Michael Downes (more information).
Talks: Manchester Game Centre – Multiplatform 2024 | 12 June, 9:45am, free | The annual symposium for the Manchester Game Centre, a cross-university research group at Manchester Metropolitan University which researches Analogue Games, Digital Arts, Esports, and much more (more information).
Theatre: The Archive of Dread | 22 June, 7:30pm, £12 | A gripping storytelling show by Robert Lloyd Parry, featuring documented tales of monsters, possession and the living dead (more information).
Talk: Manchester Lit & Phil Presents ‘Black Holes – The Key to Understanding the Universe’ | 24 June, 6:30pm, £15 | Jeff Forshaw will introduce black holes and go on to examine the consequences of trying to track the flow of information into and out of a black hole (more information).
Theatre: The Windrush Warriors | 25-29 June, 7:30pm, £12 | This life-affirming stage play reveals the human stories behind the Windrush scandal, and the people who organised to fight against injustice (more information).
The Burgess Foundation Online
For those who can’t make it to Manchester, we have plenty of other cultural activities, all of which are accessible online.
Celebrate Bloomsday from Home | An archive of writings about James Joyce on the Burgess Foundation’s website.
The Ninety-Nine Novels Podcast | The podcast celebrating Anthony Burgess’s favourite novels of the twentieth century is now in its third series, with episodes on writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Alasdair Gray, Christopher Isherwood and Ralph Ellison. Available wherever you prefer to get podcasts (more information).
The Burgess Foundation Podcast | This podcast illuminates Anthony Burgess’s life and work, with episodes examining his fiction and non-fiction, his work in the film industry, his music, and his experiences traveling the world (more information).
Object of the Week | An exploration of the archives at the Burgess Foundation. Learn about the life of Anthony Burgess through his possessions, his extensive library and other unexpected objects (more information).
You can also buy Anthony Burgess’s books about James Joyce. Every purchase supports the charitable work of the Burgess Foundation.
Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader by Anthony Burgess (affiliate link)
A Shorter Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, edited by Anthony Burgess (affiliate link)