is this based off of a true story?
i wanted to know if it was.
Sarah
Yes it is. The novelist Brian Aldiss fictionalized a lot of it, but it is apparently based on a pair of conjoined twins from the Norfolk area of England, near where Aldiss has a summer home. I think their last name was Stebbing, or Stebbings. I read about them on a conjoined twin website, and their sister wrote in about how the novel used elements of the lives.
sharecool thanks.
do you know what website it was on?
Sarah
No, it isn't.
This is a quote from Brian Aldiss at http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1882879,00.html
"But never do I embark on the writing of a new novel without a sense of excitement. It's not the worm in the apple but the pearl in the oyster. In the case of the story of Brothers of the Head, its origin was perfectly clear. My wife and I were taking a short break in Hunstanton, directly after we had enjoyed a holiday abroad. The children were with us. We had all decided holidays were an enjoyable way of life. In fact Margaret and I were not getting on too well at the time. We were driving back home in the Volvo with my daughter Wendy when suddenly I remembered the nightmare that had visited me in the small hours. It burst upon me like a sudden shower.
Startled, I said: "Oh, what a ghastly dream!" They immediately wanted to know what my dream was about. The more I protested that it was too horrible to tell, the more they persisted - as one might expect.
What I told them was the basic story of Brothers of the Head, a tale of conjoined twins, boys who are taken up and exploited as a pop group called the Bang Bang. The boys live on the sparse and windy country of north Norfolk, a few miles from the sea.
Here was the making of a sad and violent tale with psychological implications. Whether it signified that my wife and I, although we were at odds, were inseparable, I know not. The row blew over more rapidly than did the nightmare."