Burgess, argues Roger Lewis, was the writer as faker and prankster who lived, like an actor, by deception and illusion. Tracking his quarry from Manchester to Malaya to Malta to Monte Carlo, Lewis assesses Burgess's struggles and grudges and uncovers the webs of truth and lies. This biography is populated with a cast of drunks, nymphomaniacs, egotists, famous 20th-century authors, and actors.