For those who don’t find Kubrick’s film adaptation disturbing enough, the novel from which it was derived will more than compensate. Perhaps, with the growing rise in youth violence, A Clockwork Orange is more relevant now than when first published. Certainly Burgess’s dystopia is more of a realistic threat to society than Huxley’s or even Orwell’s grim future visions. The story follows Alex, leader of a band of teenage malcontents on a drug-fuelled spree of gang violence, break-and-enters and rape. When eventually arrested, the remorseless teen is chosen as the subject for a grim conditioning progress intended to curb his anti-social urges permanently. For the sheer scope of imagination, thought and literary genius, few tomes of any length can compete with this wickedly compelling little book.