Anthony Burgess and Adam Roberts, “The Black Prince”

I have a favour to ask.

So: Unbound are hoping to publish my collaboration with Anthony Burgess, The Black Prince. If you visit the Unbound page you'll discover more about the project: in a nutshell, I took Burgess's idea from the 1970s to write a historical novel about the Hundred Years War in the style of John Dos Passos (one of many projects the ridiculously prolific Burgess never finished), his basic structure and an unmade screenplay he wrote, and completed the novel. Just the idea that there might exist in the world, some day, a book with Burgess's name and mine on the cover fills me with an excitement it's hard to convey: so dedicated a Burgess fan-boy I am. In order to prepare for writing this project I re-read the entire run of Burgess's fiction, which only cemented for me my sense of how extraordinary and important a writer he was. I hope I have done his genius justice in finishing his idea: part of me thinks I have. At any rate it's unlike any other historical novel of which I'm aware.

For this to become a reality, though, I need anyone interested to pledge to support the project. You can do that at the Unbounders page, and if enough people do then the whole book becomes a reality. For each pledge you get a copy of the book with your name in it, additional material (depending on which pledge you opt for) and my genuine and unceasing gratitude.