Anthony Burgess in Cardiff

This picture shows A Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess in a Cardiff restaurant in 1989. As you can see he is rocking his trademark combination of tweed jacket, comb-over and cigarillo. He was back in Wales for the first time in twenty years to promote his collection of short stories The Devil's Mode (his only collection of short stories, in fact). As mentioned previously on this blog Burgess had strong associations with Wales. His first wife Llewela came from Bedwellty. In his novel Any Old Iron (1988) Burgess gave Welsh nationalism a mild kicking so it is perhaps surprising that he said the following on his visit to Cardiff: "In principle, I am for an independent Wales. I am for the recovery of the whole of England by Wales. This is a Celtic country and the Anglo-Saxons are invaders."