Brian Aldiss

First broadcast: Sun 28 Jan 2007

Science fiction writer

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the author Brian Aldiss. He is best known for pioneering, alongside JG Ballard, a new wave of British science fiction writing in the 1960s. He says science fiction is not so much a prediction of the future as a metaphor for the human condition; and for him, at least, writing it offered an escape route and a filter through which to view his own extraordinary upbringing. He grew up in a small Norfolk village in a very devout and austere home. While his father was distant, his mother was still suffering from the grief after her first child, a daughter, was still-born. He was the second child and even when he was very small, remembers feeling a strong sense of his mother's disappointment in him.

The army finally offered a way out for him and it was on his return to England that he started writing seriously while also working in a bookshop. One of his early works was a short story describing the sadness felt by a boy who was never able to please his parents, which was turned into a film by Stanley Kubrick. While he remains best known for his science fiction writing - and has won every major award in the field - he has also written novels, poetry and biographies and short stories. Now, he says, he aims not for high sales but to become a better and better writer.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Choices

Castaway's favourite

Walter Brennan

Old Rivers

Artist: The Johnny Mann Singers

Others who chose this artist

Henryk Mikolaj Górecki

Opening movement of Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Soloist: Susan Gritton Orchestra: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Yuri Simonov

Others who chose this artist

Ella Fitzgerald

Cow-Cow Boogie (with the Ink Spots)

Others who chose this artist

Alexander Borodin

In the Steppes of Central Asia

Orchestra: The Kirov Orchestra

Others who chose this artist

Jacques Offenbach

Quand j'étais roi de Béotie (from Orpheus in the Underworld)

Orchestra: Sadlers Wells Theatre -1960

Others who chose this artist

The Choir and Tambouritza Ensemble of Radio Osijek

Oj Lolo Moja or Oh My Darling

Tom Lehrer

So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)

Others who chose this artist

Gustav Holst

Saturn (from The Planets)

Orchestra: The London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Sir Adrian Boult

Others who chose this artist

Book

Biography of John Osborne by John Halpern

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

A banjo

Others who chose a similar luxury

Listen now (40 minutes)

Download to keep

Broadcast