John Wyndham

John Wyndham Harris (1903 – 1969) was an English science fiction writer known for writing The Day of the Triffids, the novel for which Brian Aldiss (perhaps unfairly) coined the term "Cozy Catastrophe".

His other novels include The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed twice as Village of the Damned), Trouble With Lichen, and Chocky (adapted for TV).

He also wrote several collections of short stories.


 * The Day of the Triffids
 * The Chrysalids
 * The Midwich Cuckoos
 * The Kraken Wakes
 * Trouble With Lichen
 * Chocky


 * Action Survivor: The Kraken Wakes
 * Attack of the Killer Whatever: Spiders, in the posthumously-published Web.
 * Brand X: In The Kraken Wakes, the main character works for the EBC (English Broadcasting Company). It gets extensively lampshaded -- a Running Gag is that every character is introduced saying "don't you mean BBC?", and later gets subverted, when the government takes over the media and the narrator explicitly mentions that the EBC and BBC are now one and the same.
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: The antagonists in The Kraken Wakes.
 * Gendercide: The novella "Consider Her Ways" features a world in which men have been killed off by a virus, etc, etc.
 * Gone Horribly Right: The short story "Compassion Circuit" concerns a robot nurse designed to always act for the benefit of its patient.
 * Guinea Pig Family: In Trouble with Lichen, a scientist who has created an anti-aging drug uses it on his children, telling them it's a vitamin shot.
 * Hidden Supplies: In The Kraken Wakes, the narrator Mike
 * Lady Land: The setting of the novella "Consider Her Ways".
 * Mental Time Travel: In the novella "Consider Her Ways", the protagonist travels to the future while experimenting with out-of-body experiences.
 * No Party Like a Donner Party: In the short story "Survival", a group of people are marooned for a year on a space station. As their desperation increases, they resort first to drawing lots, then to cannibalizing the losers' frozen bodies. When rescuers finally arrive, the one demented survivor sees them only as food.
 * Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The title character of Chocky.
 * Red Scare: Mocked in The Kraken Wakes with the minor character of Tuny; she continues to insist the Russians are behind the book's ever-escalating attacks on humanity from the depths of the sea, when it's soon made clear they couldn't possibly be doing it.
 * Same Face, Different Name: John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris published various works as John Wyndham, John Beynon, and Lucas Parkes.