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Brian Aldiss - 'When the Feast is Finished' - a eulogy to my wife (47/79)

373 views · Published 16 May 2017 · 2:40 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Entertainment

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To listen to more of Brian Aldiss’ stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFz9eyoxSk8DdLNHllsrLXYf

Writer Brian Aldiss (1925-2017) was best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. 'Non-Stop', his first science fiction novel, was published in 1958. His many award-winning titles include 'Hothouse', 'The Saliva Tree' and 'Helliconia Spring'. [Listener: Christopher Sykes]

TRANSCRIPT: My wife, Margaret, became ill. And whereas she had tended my garden on Boar's Hill. Boar's Hill was outside Oxford.

But eventually, Margaret said to me, 'You know, I'm tired of having to get into a car whenever I want to do the shopping. I want to go back to a town'. Perfectly reasonable argument. So, back to the town we came. And I then realized she was not particularly well, and so I was in haste to buy a house. And in fact, I bought this house in which we are now talking, that is to say, in Headington, one of the elegant suburbs of Oxford.

Here Margaret stayed and alas, here Margaret died.

And I wrote a book in her memory, called 'When the Feast is Finished'. It's a quote from there and it starts, 'But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire, there falls thy shadow, Sonara. The night is thine, and I am desolate and sick of an old passion, yea, all the time, because the night is thine'.

And that was how I felt about the death of Margaret.

However, life goes on and so does storytelling. And, well, she must be dead now for some years.

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