Why Earthly Powers is a Christmas read

'Tis the season to be reading and again on this blog, we talk about Christmas in literature. You may remember that I once suggested to have is Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess among the books to read for Christmastime. For various reasons, which you can read about in the link above. Well, today, The Anthony Burgess Foundation published a blog post about the Genesis of the novel and more specifically about how the legend of St Nicholas, the story of the miracle of resurrecting three children murdered by a cannibalistic butcher (one of my favourite saint's legend by the way, which I often blogged about in French) became the key to understand the novel's main themes. It is not the only reason I consider Earthly Powers a seasonal read, but it's one of the main reasons. In any case, I strongly suggest that you read the post, it shows a much darker side tothe prototype to Santa Claus and givessome really fascinating information about Burgess' creative process.