The Things He Left Behind

Manchester native Anthony Burgess led a fascinating life, and No Dice has been rifling through the objects he left behind for the past four months.

They’ve got poets, spoken word artists, film makers, and of course composers. In September, No Dice paired five writers with five composers and gave them an object from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation archive. In the months since, each pair has come back with their unique take on Burgess’s life. On top of our new collaborative pieces, they have experts from the Foundation to tell each object’s story and a word-less piece from James Chan.

Expect to hear:

• Tarot cards brought to life through film.
• A nostalgic look back on Burgess’s childhood, skipping through the back gardens of Manchester.
• The heartbreaking tale of a stray cat and the importance of pets.
• The romance found in an old house key and the dangers of holding on.
• Burgess’s musical version of T. S. Eliot’s seminal work The Waste Land is brought back to life after being lost to water damage… in his bath… (true story)
• A creepy musical response to the death mask commissioned by Burgess’s wife and rescued from a corner of the sculptor’s studio by the Foundation.