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Brian Aldiss - Books from my childhood (15/79)

602 views · Published 22 May 2017 · 3:47 · Indexed 12 November 2026

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

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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; date recorded: 2014]

TRANSCRIPT: The books I read as a child, I think there weren't very many. My father had on his shelves, only a 'Daily Telegraph History of World War I', that I did consult quite a lot. But, apart from that, I didn't like 'Alice in Wonderland'; I don't know why. Everyone else was nuts about it. But, his other book I liked – 'Through the Looking Glass'. That seemed to me to have a kind of metaphysical meaning, and that... that attracted me. And I think, even at that time, something that could vaguely be called metaphysical, attracted me.

For instance, HG Wells... my memory here is possibly mistaken. I have thought that there was a time when everyone in England read Mr HG Wells. He was kind of friendly and he wrote marvellous stories, not all of science fiction, but, yes, sort of ordinary, mysterious stories. That I very much liked.

I also found, down in Barnstaple, there was a WH Smith's and outside it had a bench covered with bargain books. And so there I bought quite a few books, although I can't remember what they were. But, Mr HG Wells must have taken a lot of my reading space, I think. As well as... what else? Well, certainly Marie Bashkirtseff... no, I hadn't got into Tolstoy... that was later, much later.

I think I would read all kinds of things. 'This Journal of a Disappointed Man', and I was reading science fiction magazines quite early, and they were talking about Nietzsche, and I didn't know who Nietzsche was, so I joined the Barnstaple Athenaeum, to their deep astonishment. They had never had a boy of 12 before, and I can't remember them as being very friendly. I do remember sitting in an armchair by the fire, reading about Nietzsche, and people sort of staring at me in disbelief. Later on, my dear literary agent knew far more than I did about Nietzsche. But, certainly that was one of the things that science fiction magazines encouraged one to do: to read elsewhere.

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