I almost missed the start of this short series, but thanks to the magic of digital archives caught up with it; Imagining Albion is a programme by Francis Spufford on a history of British science fiction. The first part was broadcast last Thursday (so you only have a couple more days to listen to it on the archives on BBC Radio 4′s site) and dealt with the notion of Utopias (a term which basically means ‘nowhere’). Our own Iain Banks was on hand to discuss Utopian ideals in the Culture and several other tops Brit writers were involved, as well as there being input from scientist and writer Steve Jones and John Carey (who wrote the fascinating Faber Book of Utopias several years ago, one of the first non-fiction books I reviewed online, back when you used steam-powered modems to link your Difference Engine to the net).
It is a little ‘establishment’ in terms of SF, but still a very interesting episode and I will make sure to tune in for the next one this Thursday, which looks at how invasions have been imagined (very timely since next week’s Doctor Who promises a Cyberman invasion!). I’ve always had a soft spot for Spufford, who wrote the charming, The Child That Books Built, Cultural Babbage: Time, Technology and Invention and The Backroom Boys: the Secret Return of the British Boffin (a splendid pop-science book which took readers through great post-war Boffinry, from Concorde to writing Elite for the BBC Model B to cracking the human genome project and saving it from ruthless commerical exploitation – a brilliant read for tech geeks everywhere).
Mon, Jun 26, 2006
Books, Film, TV and radio