Great Retro Brit Sci-Fi Post Apocalypse Reads.

During the 1940s to 1970s, I think Britain had a fabulous crop of sci/fi writers. As a youngster, I read many and was enthralled by some of the stories. Especially John Wyndham, who I think wrote three marvellous books. They are The Midwich Cuckoos, The Chrysalids and The Day of the Triffids. Yes, he did write other fine stories as well, but I loved these particular three.

   

I thought the writing was splendid and I was totally gripped by each story. As a youngster, I liked The Chrysalids best. However, over a period of time, The Midwich Cuckoos as gained stronger prominence in my mind.

During my youth at school, we had a great English lit, teacher and she would often have the class reading allowed during the lesson while the rest of the class followed with their own copy of the book. Sometimes she would read for a bit and then she would single out a pupil to read. Gradually working round every pupil during the different English lit: lessons. We did two of John Wyndham's stories during that course. The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids. It was an all-boys school and our teacher was female and not very strict, but she was able to get every adolescent boy's attention because of the way she had us reading and understanding these stories. She would pause now and then to explain characters and observations on the way the writer picked up on human themes. I don't think any of us wanted the bell to ring. By the end of the course, every boy lost his inhibition of reading allowed in the class.

                            

From these stories, I went on a mad journey of post-apocalyptic tales. I was captivated by them. John Christopher's The Death of Grass, George Orwell's 1984 and the original Daddy of them all, H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. I used to buzz with delight and my mind was working over time. I suppose I was a bit of a Geek for these type of stories.

      

Another author who seemed to do nothing more than write stories of various types of post-apocalyptic Britain was Edmund Cooper. He was probably a little pulpier than the others but he still did a lot of stimulating and far-fetched things that flicked a switch with me. Novels like: Who Needs Men, All Fools Day and Five to twelve. Two of these tales caused a stir with fem groups. Another good tale is The Cloud Walker. They always seemed to be about humankind trying to pick up the pieces after the world is destroyed.

Twelve to five and Who Needs Men caused controversy among feminist groups.