Anthony Burgess’s funny, moving, autobiographical novel that brings to life the world of silent cinemas and music-halls of 1920s Manchester and Blackpool. Fully annotated and with a new introduction, this is an authoritative text for a new generation of readers.

The Pianoplayers is the extraordinary story of Ellen Henshaw, a young Mancunian born just before the First World War who, when her mother dies, is put in the doubtful charge of her father, Billy, with whom she shares a series of picaresque adventures in Lancashire and beyond. From her earliest experiences of seedy boarding houses and Brussels convent education – where the nuns aim to equip their girls with more than just the basic skills for life – Ellen, with the gutsy streetwise common-sense of an Eliza Doolittle and the sophistication of a Moll Flanders, goes on to become the most highly sought-after ‘companion’ in the South of France and sets ‘schools of love; from Singapore to Bangkok, Hamburg to London.But it is around Ellen’s pianoplayer father that the main story revolves. Seldom sober but kind-hearted to a fault, he is a talented pianist whose love of the bottle has reduced him to accompanying silent films in flea-pit movie houses and competing in marathon non-stop playing competitions. Ellen recalls with fond affection her father and the world of Manchester and Blackpool in the 1920s.This new edition restores the original text with reference to manuscript drafts and fragments, examines publication history and reception, and provides valuable critical commentary and notes, placing the novel in the context of Anthony Burgess’s other fictional and autobiographical writing. Fully annotated and supplemented by contemporary reviews and a rare short story by Anthony Burgess, this edition provides a wealth of material for new readers of Burgess’s work and specialists alike.

'He has hit on a brilliant theme, low and heroic at the same time.'Norman Shrapnel, Guardian 'Part autobiography, part joyous invention, it combines picaresque at its best with comedy of high subtlety and poetry ... A major novel by a major novelist.'Financial Times 'Anthony Burgess is one of the most versatile artists of the English language.'Erica Jong, Washington Post