I can't believe it's taken me until the ripe old age of 42 (a starry veck no less) to read this classic! Where the heck have I been?

This book has left me with a very strange feeling. I don't like violence and certainly don't approve of Alex and his droogs' ultra-violence, but in a strange way, the book has sort got under my skin.

The state oppression seems like a rehashed theme, but of course this book came out in the early 60's. Naturally, totalitarian regimes abound nowadays and even the ones who claim to support freedom of speech and human rights are rather less than shiny!

Anyway, if you haven't read it, you probably should. There are no end of parallels between the world Anthony Burgess paints and the one we live in today, especially when you think of all the postcode gangs and knife-induced death in London these days. If you can get through the first fifteen pages, you'll find the questions that its ideas, poetry and nadsat creep back into your mind.