It then suggests a shift in meaning affecting British science fiction from the mid-1950s, with rising fears about the demise of empire, and concerns that European civilisation is waning. Connections are drawn between key science fiction novels and public concerns about possible atomic war, espionage fears, future Soviet invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The chief writers explored are Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, John Wyndham, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, and the television writer Terry Nation. It begins by briefly showing how a popular Western symbolised the Berlin Airlift, then considers how several new Sci Fi novels, including 'The Martian Chronicles,' 'The Day of the Triffids,' 'I am Legend,' and 'The Bodysnatchers' each respond more precisely to changing Soviet aggression. In 1946 he went back to writing stories for publication in the USA and decided to try a modified form of science fiction, a form he called 'logical fantasy'.The article discusses how the emerging genre of American and British science fiction symbolised and expressed Cold War anxieties after 1949.

During the war he was in the Civil Service and then the Army. From 1930 to 1939 he wrote stories of various kinds under different names, almost exclusively for American publications, while also writing detective novels. He tried a number of careers including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, and started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, 50 years before their realisation, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.Ībout the author: John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a barrister. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere 24 hours before is gone forever.īut to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science-fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having 'all the reality of a vividly realised nightmare'.īill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen.

In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim.

War of the triffids