For the annual Burgess Lecture, given during the 2012 Manchester Literature Festival, we were delighted to welcome Dominic Sandbrook for an exploration of A Clockwork Orange and the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, and the launch of A Clockwork Orange: The Restored Text, edited by Andrew Biswell. Dominic Sandbrook is the acclaimed author of the books Never Had It So Good, White Heat and State of Emergency, which, along with his new book Seasons in the Sun, has recently been adapted for television.

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As part of our celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Anthony Burgess’ most famous novel we asked Dominic to talk about its social and historical contexts. He touched on the rise of milk bars, Teddy Boys and youth culture in the late 1950s and early 1960s; the background to the UK release of Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, which appeared amidst the 1972 strikes and a few weeks before Bloody Sunday; and everything in between. Click on the ‘play’ buttons to hear extracts from the beginning of the talk which set the scene.

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We’ll post more from his fascinating lecture over the coming week.

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