''Little Wilson and Big God'', volume I of Anthony Burgess's autobiography, was first published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1986. It won the

J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography PEN Ackerley Prize (or, J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography) is awarded annually by English PEN for a literary autobiography of excellence, written by an author of British nationality and published during the preceding year. The winner receive ...

. The work describes a period of over 40 years from Burgess's birth, in 1917, to 1959, when his time as teacher and education officer in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

came to an end. The writer's education at

Xaverian College Xaverian College is a Roman Catholic college in Manchester, England, south of the city centre in Rusholme. Established in 1862, Xaverian College has become one of the most oversubscribed Sixth form college in Greater Manchester, along with Lore ...

and at Manchester University, his war service at an army garrison in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, and his service as a teacher at Banbury Grammar School (which he describes as one of the happiest periods of his life) are all covered in detail. One of the most significant literary autobiographies in English of the latter part of the 20th century, the book has been described as resembling a picaresque novel in the vividness of its descriptions and its readability. Roger Lewis opined that "It is perhaps Burgess's memoirs...which constitute his best novels, his masterpieces."

References

{{burgess Books by Anthony Burgess Literary autobiographies 1986 books Weidenfeld & Nicolson books