When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else doctors & patients alike have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now with civilization in chaos the triffids
- huge venomous large-rooted plants able to 'walk' feeding on human flesh
- can have their day. The Day of the Triffids" published in 1951 expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War the fear of biological experimentation & the man-made apocalypse. However with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants the book is more relevant today than ever before. John Wyndham was born in 1903. After a wide experience of the English preparatory school he was at Bedales from 1918 to 1921. Careers which he tried included farming law commercial art & advertising & he first started writing short stories intended for sale in 1925. During the war he was in the Civil Service & afterwards in the Army. In 1946 he began writing his major science fiction novels including " The Kraken Wakes" " The Chrysalids" & " The Midwich Cuckoos"."