Little Wilson and Big God

These are Anthony Burgess''s candid confessions: he was seduced at the age of nine by an older woman; whilst serving in Gibraltar in World War II he was thrown into jail on VE Day for calling Franco names; he once taught a group of Nazi socialites that the English equivalent of ''heil'' was ''sod'' and had them crying ''Sod Hitler''. Little Wilson and Big God moves from Moss Side to Malaya recalling Burgess''s time as an education officer in the tropics, his tempestuous first marriage, his struggles with Catholicism and the beginning of his prolific writing life. Wise, self-deprecating and bristling with incident, this is a first-class memoir.