Will Self

speaker

664 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 29 May

Will Self’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.

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Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth · Will Self · 29 May 2026 podcast

When I was 17, so I didn't even have to get A-levels.

Yeah, I was clever.

Not English, yeah.

I didn't want to write like Enid Blyton.

I wanted to write like Dostoevsky.

I didn't even want to write like Evelyn Waugh.

I wanted to write like Goethe.

And it was not... My ambitions were so vaunting already...

And were you writing at that stage?

What were you writing?

It was rubbish.

I mean, obviously, it was just rubbish.

The biggest problem for a writer, as you know yourself, is authenticity of voice.

That's why there are very few literary prodigies, youthful prodigies for that reason.

And you need some life events.

And not just the tragic comedy of childhood.

You need adult life events.

I was already in too much trouble.

I doubled down on my estrangement and sense of uncanniness in the English class by becoming a heroin addict and being arrested for drugs and charged and convicted.

So I already had a criminal record at the age of 20.

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