 "The Worm and the Ring" (1961) had to be withdrawn from circulation under the threat of libel action from one of Burgess's former colleagues, a school secretary.His dystopian novel "A Clockwork Orange" was published in 1962.It was inspired initially by an incident during the Second World War in which his wife Lynne was robbed, assaulted and violated by deserters from the US Army in London during the blackout.