John Wyndham

[TheHound86]

I just finished The Chrysalids by John Wyndham and loved it. He seems to have written quite a lot of books. Which should I try next?
I was looking at The Midwich Cuckoos and possibly The Day of the Triffids.

I love Triffids and Chocky.

And The Midwich cuckoos! I remember watching Village of the Damned as a child and then reading Midwich, it's much better than the film.

Any of his! They're all brilliant. Obvs Triffids and Cuckoos, they're his well know ones. Also The Kraken Wakes.

Trouble With Lichen is another one.

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

its the only book Ive read twice

Agree any! The Chrysallids is one of my favourite books.

Trouble with lichen

Trouble with Lichen is one of my favourites. It was 99p on Kindle last week, so I got it for DS

Definitely those two next, and the Kraken Wakes. The Chrysalids is my favourite though.

Trouble with Lichen is one of my favourites. It was 99p on Kindle last week, so I got it for DS. Wish I'd know that. It's about the only book of his I've never read.

The day of the Triffids from your two choices, but agree with other Lichen is a fabulous book.

@BunnyRuddington. It's still 99p on Kindle. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9N1U/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Thank you!

They are all brilliant.

I re-read Day of the Triffids in March last year when we went into lockdown. It felt a suitable read at the time!

Seeds of Time and other collections of his short stories are good. If somewhat dark and grim.

He also wrote a book of short stories called Consider Her Ways and Others that is great. There’s one story in it that still gives me nightmares years later

Love Wyndham. Haven't read any since teens but there was abrill radio 4 version of Midwich on a few years ago, don't know if still available. My tweens got quite into it.

The chrysalids is the best but I like all of them.

Just finished re-reading The Midwich Cuckoos.

The trouble with lichen is being serialised on BBC sounds right now

My Dad recommended me John Wyndham years ago - love them.

All of them! My favourite author apart from Pratchett. avoid Web if you don't like spiders though

I'm re-reading Wyndham just now and am on the Chrysalids at the moment. I have to say though, the sexism is totally shocking. I don't really remember that from reading them before. E.g. on a space trip full of astronauts, the only woman present is someone's wife. He imagined all kinds of things, but not equality between the sexes. (The women do often prevail over the men, as in the above story, but the starting premise is that they are the underdogs.)

Read them all, and when you finish, try John Christopher. He wrote later than JW but in a similar style of "cosy catastrophe" . (Just ignore "The Pendulum Swings"! God only knows what he was doing when he churned it out! It's totally out of his style and a complete bag of shite!)
There's also a sequel to "Day of the Triffids" by Simon somebody or other that is good too.

Love John Wyndham!

I would love to see a decent adaptation of Day of the Triffids. I'm sure it could be modernised, what with genetic engineering and so forth. Might even write the script myself.

@TheBitchOfTheVicar

Trouble with lichen

Yes! I never knew anyone else who even heard of it.

I actually don’t think they should be modernised. I think they should remake “chocky and the Midwich cuckoos set in the 50s. Styled a bit like those recent Miss Marples. The dialogue in his books is very Received Pronunciation. I think modern day CGI would work really well with a period setting