Will Self
Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The writer, satirist and urban explorer Will Self talks to Gyles about his childhood, his career and his life now. From his boyhood as "little Willy", the apple of his mother's eye, who was both enfolded and smothered by her love; to his adolescence when he began smoking, drinking and experimenting with drugs earlier than most; to his student days when his good looks meant he found it easy to get women into bed... this is an absorbing, entertaining and sometimes surprising episode, full of laughs, and full of astute observations (as you might expect from one of our foremost satirists). Will also talks about taking heroin on John Major's plane, being on Shooting Stars and his illness and recent stem cell transplant.
Our thanks to Will for his dazzling conversation, and for being such charming company. And thank you, too, to his wife Nellie for coming along!
Will's new book The Quantity Theory of Morality is out now and is HIGHLY recommended. You can buy a copy here.
Enjoy this... we're sure you will.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. |
| 0:03.0 | There's a new guest waiting, with quite a lot to say. |
| 0:06.3 | So I'm going to shut up and say welcome to another episode of Rosebud. |
| 0:11.0 | We do indeed have a very special guest for you. |
| 0:13.9 | Cue the music. |
| 0:14.9 | They're ready. Hello, I'm Jarlance Brandreth, and a warm welcome to another episode of Rosebud. |
| 0:41.9 | I always say every guest is special. |
| 0:44.4 | This one is extra special to me because I have been reading his work now for, well, since the early 1990s. |
| 0:53.2 | And I love the way he writes. I love his way with words. I love the way he plays |
| 1:00.2 | with ideas. I love the fact that he is a satiric writer, but also can touch the heart. He is |
| 1:08.2 | will self. And he's a controversial writer to many. He's been up for every award that |
| 1:15.4 | you can imagine Booker Prize, Whitbread novel of the year, you name it, he's been there. I've just |
| 1:22.6 | been reading, I think, the 20th novel by him that I've read. It's called The Quantity Theory of Morality. |
| 1:30.1 | I think that's probably inspired by his first big breakout novel, which was the quantity theory |
| 1:35.4 | of insanity back in 1991. This is an episode, I suppose, that should begin with a bit of a trigger |
| 1:42.4 | warning because there's going to be sex, drugs and rock and roll. |
| 1:47.0 | Well, no, certainly drugs, certainly sex. |
| 1:50.5 | I don't think there is much rock and roll. |
| 1:52.1 | There's a roller coaster life. |
| 1:54.0 | There's so much packed into this conversation. |
| 1:57.8 | But here is a very funny, I think very wise, very interesting character. Please do. |
| 2:04.9 | If you haven't read his latest, I do thoroughly recommend it. I haven't got to the end of it yet. |
... |
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