Tremor of Intent (32 page)

‘We'll have a
good
dinner,' said Alan. ‘On me. With champagne. And we can drink toasts.'

‘Lovely,' said Clara.

‘Amen,' said Father Hillier.

‘I have read with delight this spy novel to end all spy novels… Tremor of Intent is a book to read. I'll be surprised if you quickly forget it.'
– Francis Brown,
New York Times Book Review
, speaking on WQXR

‘A gleaming novel of ideas…brazenly clever. He is possessed by a black sense of humor… Burgess is nothing if not outrageous.'
–
New York Times Book Review

‘Tremor of Intent has more wit and comic invention than the books which it so boisterously ridicules… The talent is as unsettling as it is prodigious. The element of play is outrageous and nearly always funny.'
–
New Republic

‘The tone here is Fleming, veering to Graham Greene; Eric Ambler and John Le Carre are just around the corner… Very funny.'
–
The Listener

‘Splendid entertainment, outrageous ribaldry, lordly intelligence.'
–
The Guardian

‘Just below the glossy skin there is a subtle exploration of the human condition, an examination of contemporary morality. One of the rare novelists writing today.'
–
Book Week

‘A first-class knockabout thriller… marvelously entertaining.'
–
Times Literary Supplement

‘A heady brew of intrigue, leavened with a dash of mysticism and philosophy.'
– John Barkham,
Saturday Review Syndicate

1
See Conversations with Anthony Burgess, edited by Earl G. Ingersoll and Mary C. Ingersoll (University Press of Mississippi, 2008),
p. 37
.

1
. Clara and Alan calmer now but sent to bed with a couple of sleeping tablets each. The
Polyolbion
throbbing away from Yarylyuk towards Istanbul. I have sent a radio message to the address given by T, namely Cumhuriyet Caddesi 15. Another steward answered my ring, saying Wriste unaccountably not reported back to ship. I sit here with the crabbed royal blue script of Roper and a new bottle of Old Mortality. All right, Roper, let's hear all about it.

1
. Oh no, Roper. You never even did that at school.

1
. You sentimental self-pitying bastard, Roper. You'll be back in the Church yet, you mark my words.

1
. They should have been
most
willing to help, shouldn't they?

2
. Cut out the frills, Roper. Not your line at all.

1
. Oh no, Roper. No no. NO.

1
. From what pretentious TV play did you pick that up?

2
. Sir Arnold Cornpit-Ferrers, as he now is? The dawn breaks, Roper.

1
. Watch it, watch it.

2
. And again.

3
. Do try.

1
?

2
. Knocknoise, distant.

3
. Wherewhatwhowhy?

4
. ‘Oh, please, please, please. He's dead, I tell you. It's all over. Alan won't wake up.

5
. Eh? Clara in dressing-gown, weeping.
She
came in to tell me, triumphant almost. He's dead. Oh, what do we do now?