Proms Extra: HG Wells: Stephen Baxter and Dr Sarah Dillon

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2016

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

HG Wells was born 150 years ago this year. Although a prolific writer in many genres, he is best known today for his science fiction books, ‘The War of the Words’ and ‘The Time Machine’. As the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain prepare to perform Holst’s suite The Planets, novelist Stephen Baxter, who has been commissioned to write a sequel to ‘The War of the Worlds’ examines Wells’s novels and philosophy. He’s joined by science fiction expert and New Generation Thinker Dr Sarah Dillon from the University of Cambridge. The discussion is hosted by Dr Will Abberley from the University of Sussex, another New Generation Thinker. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music
0:27.0	when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:36.6	150 years ago, above a shop in Bromley, H.G. Wells was born. From humble beginnings, he went on to write some of the most influential science fiction stories of all time. From the time machine to the war of the worlds, Wells' tales offered stark, disturbing visions of a world transformed by science.
0:55.0	He was also fascinated by technology and predicted innovations to come from television and video conferencing to the atomic bomb.
1:02.0	But Wells aspired to more than just imagining the future. He wanted to change it.
1:07.0	He advocated social reform, a new education system, and an end to war through the creation of a world state.
1:13.6	As the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain prepares to perform Hulse's Planet Suite, there seems no better time to explore the significance and legacy of this unique writer.
1:22.6	I'm Will Abbey, lecturer in English Literature at the University of Sussex. And with me to discuss Wells' work is the novelist Stephen Baxter, who's been writing a sequel to the War of the Worlds.
1:33.3	We're also joined by science fiction expert and new generation thinker Sarah Dillon from the University of Cambridge.
1:43.3	Stephen, Wells came from fairly obscure origins.
1:48.3	His mother was a housemaid, his father was a small-time cricketer and shopkeeper,
1:52.8	and in his teens he was forced to work as a draper after his family fell on hard times.
1:57.5	It doesn't really sound like the beginnings of a great author and visionary. So where did
2:01.9	it all go right? Oh, well, good question. I think he had a literally a lucky break in his early
2:09.3	teens. He broke his leg badly, or it may have been his hip, and while his mother was working
2:14.6	in the kitchen of this big house,
2:20.6	and long convalescence.
2:21.9	But during that convalescence,
2:25.1	the owners of the house kindly let him use the library,
2:26.4	which was full of... I don't think there's anything from the 19th century there at the time,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.