Book description
Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain.
When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered
scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their
time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered
a landmark work of storytelling. First published in 1955, The Chrysalids
is a post-nuclear story of genetic mutation in a devastated world, which
tells of the lengths the intolerant will go to to keep themselves pure.
David Strorm?s father doesn?t approve of Angus Morton?s unusually large
horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realize
that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends, have their own
secret aberration which would label them as mutants. But as David and
Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their
differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for
eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands ?
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a
barrister. He tried a number of careers including farming, law,
commercial art and advertising, and started writing short stories,
intended for sale, in 1925. From 1930 to 1939 he wrote short stories of
various kinds under different names, almost exclusively for American
publications, while also writing detective novels. During the war he was
in the Civil Service and then the Army. 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'. As John Wyndham he
wrote
The Day of the Triffids
, The Kraken Wakes
, The Chrysalids
, The Midwich Cuckoos
(filmed as Village of the Damned
), The Seeds of Time
, Trouble with Lichen
, The Outward Urge
, Consider Her Ways and Others
, Web
and Chocky
. John Wyndham died in March 1969.
