To celebrate the 101st anniversary of Anthony Burgess’s birth, we present a brand new discovery from our archive.

Here is a rare recording of author Anthony Burgess singing. This is Burgess himself sitting at the piano, and the song is ‘The Young May Moon’, composed in 1807 and set to an old Irish tune. Dublin poet Thomas Moore wrote the words, and he featured this song in his hugely popular ‘Irish Melodies’.

The is from ‘They Wrote in English: A Survey of British and American Literature’, an Italian-published literary history which came out in 1979. This was released in two volumes: the first had Burgess writing about literature, spanning from the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain to the present day. The second was an accompanying anthology from the “earliest recorded poetry to the most recently published prose”. Hence this recording.

Below is a Soundcloud embed and a YouTube lyrics video.

We have more where this came from. If you would like to visit the archive, do get in touch to make an appointment.

• Share | 
• Print