The Day of the Triffids

A modern classic of a science fiction, The Day of the Triffids is the novel that invented the 'cosy catastrophe'.

When Bill Masen wakes up in his hospital bed, he has reason to be grateful for the bandages that covered his eyes the night before. For he finds a population rendered blind and helpless by the spectacular meteor shower that filled the night sky, the evening before. But his relief is short-lived as he realises that a newly-blinded population is now at the mercy of the Triffids.

Once, the Triffids were farmed for their oil, their uncanny ability to move and their carnivorous habits well controlled by their human keepers. But now, with humans so vulnerable, they are a potent threat to humanity's survival. It is up to people like Bill, the few who can still see, to carve out a future for the human race . . .

About the Author

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was the son of a barrister, who started writing short stories in 1925. 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, which he called 'logical fantasy'. As John Wyndham, he is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).