ANTHONY BURGESS spent much of his early life convinced he would become a famous composer. He wrote his first symphony at 16. Instead, after a period as a school-master, he became a prolific novelist, critic and linguist, a man of letters in every sense. He has written 42 novels to date, the best-known being A Clockwork Orange, and the most massive his latest, Earthly Powers, which was tipped last year for the Booker Prize, but did not win. Burgess now finds compensations in literary fame - his symphonies get played.