A world where it could just rain and rain and rain, and then rain some more, feels like an undeniable reality all along the east coast of Australia at the moment. However, All Summer in a Day resonated more strongly today as a climate story. Most of our Cold War fears dissolved along with the USSR in 1991, although recent events have reminded us that war and ego and pride are never far away in the minds of our leaders. This was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives. The desire to be the first into space was a matter of ego for many.

Fear of a nuclear war was very real as our polticians played at brinkmanship. The Cold War and the space race between the US and USSR were predominant narratives of every day life. Written in 1954, Bradbury’s story reflects the poltics of his time. It had been raining for seven years thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands.īradbury wrote something like 600 short stories during his writing career, which is a pretty impressive achievement. Reading All Summer in a Day during this time felt ominous and portentous. Homes, bridges and whole towns have flooded, many suffering record breaking flood levels.įor the rest of us, it is has been an unending, uninspiring scene of grey skies, dampness and leaks…and frightening news updates.

Most of the time, it has been regular steady, persistent rainfall, but sometimes it turned into torrential downpours, dumping hundreds of mls of rain in short periods of time. The east coast of Australia has endured several weeks of non-stop rain. It turns out that lots of people had been thinking about this story lately. It was a Ray Bradbury short story called All Summer in a Day. It didn’t take long for people to text in with the details.

One of the presenters remembered a story she read as a child about a planet where it rained ALL the time. “Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?”įirst published on the 1st March 1954, Ray Bradbury’s short story came to my attention today thanks to a chat on our local ABC radio morning show.

All summer in a day book