Wyndham described the odd rather than the fantastic, the disturbing rather than the horrific, the remarkable rather than the outrageous.” intelligent life is the only thing that gives meaning to the universe. It is a holy thing, to be fostered and treasured.…" The Chrysalids is a famous example of 1950s Cold War science fiction, but its portrait of a community driven to authoritarian madness by its overwhelming fear of difference—in this case, of genetic mutations in the aftermath of nuclear war—finds its echoes in every society.”

Alien telepathy. I mean, hello! Since light is the speed limit, the only reasonably efficient method of exploration has got to be SOMETHING ELSE. Especially if you want to send real spaceships to other intelligent races, you need to make sure you're welcome. :)

Last on

As is common with authors writing in and of the period, the women are decorative and domestic, but largely sidelined in a friendly way. Younger sister Polly is plausibly annoying, but not given many redeeming qualities. However, in in the collection Consider Her Ways and Others (see my review HERE), a couple of the stories have a strong female/feminist slant. The penultimate bit of the plot was incongruously far-fetched and almost comic. Not massively so, but it spoiled the overall experience for me, though I’m not sure what I’d have written instead. Fortunately, the actual end was touching, without becoming overly sentimental. The beautiful ending conveys a message to those in a powerful, strong position: sometimes withdrawing from that power and letting children develop at their own pace is the most loving and caring thing you can do. Sometimes successful careers, fame and celebrity are dangerous and not to be encouraged. Sometimes less ambitious, quiet self-fulfilment in art or literature is to be preferred. Sometimes less is more. That is not what I got, though. And I have to reflect on the fact that my expectations were so stereotypical. Why would I expect a highly intelligent, curious extraterrestrial explorer to be as evil and stupid as humans have proven to be, over and over again? Why would I expect it to be even worse? Why would I feel threatened by the unknown, even before I see any signs of danger? Wyndham] was responsible for a series of eerily terrifying tales of destroyed civilisations; created several of the twentieth century’s most imaginative monsters; and wrote a handful of novels that are rightly regarded as modern classics.”

Science fiction always tells you more about the present than the future. John Wyndham’s classroom favourite might be set in some desolate landscape still to come, but it is rooted in the concerns of the mid-1950s. Published in 1955, it’s a novel driven by the twin anxieties of the cold war and the atomic bomb…Fifty years on, when our enemy has changed and our fear of nuclear catastrophe has subsided, his analysis of our tribal instinct is as pertinent as ever.” The show isn't without it's problems though. It's a very slow affair, and the pacing feels drawn out - almost to the point where I felt that my attention was waning in certain parts (and that's my adult brain talking). Most of this first series involved the parents just sitting around talking, and I can't quite see how that would be entertaining for a child. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Damien Lynch, who does a very good job, bringing every character to life and managing the children’s voices well – not something every narrator can pull off. His unhurried approach suits the tone of the book and allows the listener time to absorb the themes.

Broadcasts

Wyndham singlehandedly invented a whole pile of sub-genres of SF. It’s as if . . . in the 1950s he was plugged in to the world’s subconscious fears and articulated them one by one in short, amazingly readable novels.” An adaptation by John Constable as a single 90-minute drama for BBC Radio 4, directed by Melanie Harris, was first broadcast on 18 March 1998. Music was by Paul Gargill, and the cast included: A remarkably tender story of a post-nuclear childhood…It has, of course, always seemed a classic to most of its three generations of readers…It has become part of a canon of good books.”

Reading this in later life I can but say that it is Sci Fi for sure but hardly disaster/dystopian writing I recall. In fact I found the book rather hopeful in tone. To tell why would give the story away so for those interested in 50’/60’s sci fi I say read it. It is a good read.

When David Gore, the narrator, overhears his adopted son, Matthew, having a conversation with what he assumes is an imaginary friend he becomes concerned. Apart from the fact that Matthew is almost twelve years old and so surely past the age when he should have an imaginary friend, it also seems to be a very strange conversation, with questions no twelve-year-old would normally ask. Re-Birth ( The Chrysalids) was one of the first science fiction novels I read as a youth, and several times tempted me to take a piggy census. Returning to it now, more than 30 years later, I find that I remember vast parts of it with perfect clarity…a book to kindle the joy of reading science fiction.”

The non-binary people who are increasingly visible today can surely relate to being pigeon-holed that way. This quirky alien-meets-boy story “remains fresh and disturbing in an entirely unexpected way”—for fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ( The Guardian). The answer to my question to myself is that human beings are conditioned to distrust anything that is different from themselves. And it takes a lot of thinking and mental training to understand that our own way of life is not the universal default setting. Interesante novela, amena, entretenida y que para estar escrita en 1968 deja entrever un concepto como el del aprovechamiento de la energía oscura, la cual no se descubrió hasta finales del siglo XX, y que muy recientemente he visto utilizado como recurso también por Stephen Baxter en “Galaxias”. What John Wyndham does so brilliantly is invest quiet suburban streets with menace. The idea of an alien intelligence inhabiting a child is always frightening. But here Wyndham turns a story of ‘possession’ into a touching fable about our profligate use of the planet.”The novel was adapted and produced by John Tydeman as a single 60-minute drama for the BBC Radio 2, first broadcast on 27 November 1968. The cast includes: While the 1968 novel was set in an unspecified 'near future', the TV adaptation was set contemporaneously in the mid-1980s in Surrey. The Gore family acquire a second generation Citroën CX car which was marketed as being technologically advanced at the time. The second (my personal favourite) and third series have much better pacing and more focus on the children which makes for a superior watch I feel. However, despite it's sometimes turgid (some might say dull) pace, there is a better sense of authenticity to this first series. Matthew Gore is an intelligent boy chosen by a mysterious extraterrestrial visitor to be a source of information about life on Earth. As his schoolwork and artistic talent improve dramatically he arouses the suspicion of powerful groups who wish to tap into the amazing fund of knowledge to which he is now party. A pioneering science-fiction master confronts an enigma as strange as anything found in his classic works, The Day of the Triffids or The Chrysalids: the mind of a child.