Burgess is a mixed bag. He isn't a great prose stylist by any stretch but he has written a couple of my favorite novels - Earthly Powers, specifically. This is a novel that I love due to the interesting alternating narratives that are thematically similar and intertwined with great skill. Burgess can tell a story and his novels while not classics (save possibly Clockwork Orange) are for the most part always interesting. I've read about 5 or 6 of his works out of the seemingly countless number of novels he wrote, starting late in his life but once he started he made up for lost time. His personal life story - being diagnosed with a brain tumor and being given only a few months to live only to not only surpass those few months but (tragically and ironically) having his wife precede him in death while he went on to live to a very old age. Burgess is a 'typical' European man of letters from the mid 20th century. He won't go down in history as anywhere near the upper echelon of great British novelists but at his best, and the End of the World News is among them - he's definitely worth your time.