Wonderful Deathless Ditties

Abstract

We had more time in the thirties. Olaf Stapledon and I discussed everything from growing potatoes to world politics and back again, but mostly science fiction. His own work was mounting up, increasingly fascinating to the real scientists, especially the younger generation, including my brother J.B.S. Haldane who told me I must immediately read Last and First Men. I hadn’t started writing sf yet, but I was thrilled with his. We met in the Café Royale, where one sat on plush benches and had a good three course lunch with coffee and I think a glass of wine for half a crown. It was full of highbrows but Olaf Stapledon didn’t look like one. He was strong and stocky, with light brown hair cut short and very blue eyes; he often looked worried, perhaps because he was looking too far into the future or perhaps because he was onto a problem of which the scientific solution was not visible.