Matthew de Abaitua – författare

A dazzling work of science fiction to which Dune, the Foundation trilogy, and 2001: A Space Odyssey owe a major debt. Narrated telepathically by one of the Last Men, Olaf Stapledon s epic history of the future caused a literary sensation when it first appeared in 1930. Over the course of two billion years, it seems, ever more alien versions of humankind will rise and fall developing every sort of utopian and dystopian civilization only to descend into savagery again and again, until eventually the Earth s resources are depleted. This abridged edition takes us from the fall of the First Men to the initial efforts of the Fifth Men, the last Terrestrials, to colonize other planets!

‘A moving lament for a vanished age’ – Financial TimesSHORTLISTED: New Angle Prize The scene is a remote cottage in Suffolk in the 1990s.Will Self, newly divorced, is the in-demand enfant terrible of the British literary scene. Matthew De Abaitua, an eager young writer fresh out of Malcolm Bradbury's Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia, is excited to be hired as his ‘amanuensis’.It’s not obvious what that intriguing job title will entail. In this unique, frank and often very funny portrait of one of our most talked-about and controversial literary figures, Self & I charts the highs and lows of the experience.It is a compelling account of a remarkable time in Britain and British literature.