About the Author
The English novelist John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (1903-69) wrote

his finest work under the pseudonym John Wyndham, though he had at least

seven others, all permutations of his lengthy name. Raised in Edgbaston,

Birmingham, he attended a number of English prep schools and began writing as

a sideline, while trying to make a career variously in law, farming,

commercial art and advertising. He began publishing stories in the early

1930s, many in American magazines, but he did not find his voice as the

writer John Wyndham until he returned from service in World War II.

The world had changed, and it was now gripped by the possibility of a nuclear

apocalypse. Wyndham was fascinated by apocalyptic scenarios, and his 1951

novel The Day of the Triffids transformed him as a writer. His distinctive

approach to fantasy is often classified as science fiction, though its

popularity far exceeds the genre. Following the publication of The Day of

the Triffids in 1951, Wyndham wrote a series of remarkable novels that

include The Kraken Wakes (1953), The Chrysalids (1955), The Midwich Cuckoos

(1957), The Trouble with Lichen (1960) and Chocky (1968) as well as the short

story collections Jizzle (1954), Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter (1956), The

Seeds of Time (1956) and Consider Her Countless Ways and Others (1961).

Wyndham also wrote under a number of other pseudonyms, and several titles

were released under his name after his death in March of 1969. He remains

best known for the timeless terror of The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich

Cuckoos, the latter inspiring two memorable film versions titled Village of

the Damned.