The Spoken Word: Aldous Huxley (British Library - British Library Sound Archive)

Best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley was a prolific and respected author of many works of fiction and social satire. This CD presents recordings from the BBC archives spanning nearly thirty years of Huxley’s career.

      The recordings include: a broadcast on The Causes of War, in which Huxley explains the psychological reasoning used by governments to encourage people to fight; a discussion of  Ape and Essence, a fantasy about a future world after biological and atomic war; a look at the effects of drug-taking on the writing process; an excerpt in which Huxley discusses his move from England to California—which was due in part to his fear that many of the prophecies of Brave New World had come true; and a conversation about Island that attempts to show how utopian ideals may be put into effect.

      Many of the recordings here have not been available since they were first broadcast, and they offer unique insight into one of the most intriguing authors of the twentieth century.