The tone of The Hand-Reared Boy is lightly humorous, with a sentiment that never drops into sentimentality. It presents without swagger, much that is not easy to accept.
Young Horatio Stubbs suffers the pangs of adolescence, but is weaned from self-pleasure by the delights offered by his school’s nursing sister, who is not all she seems. The novel became a great scandal in England, where it was rejected by thirteen publishers, and caused a law-suit – as a result of which it became a bestseller.
Brian W. Aldiss’s 1970 novel was longlisted for the Lost Man Booker, in 2010.
Brian W. Aldiss
About the Author
As a child, Brian w. Aldiss discovered the pulp fiction magazine Astounding Science Fiction, which proved a gateway to the likes of H.G. Wells and Philip K. Dick and his own career as a sci-fi writer.