Review of ‘The Day of the Triffids’ by John Wyndham

John Wyndham’s science fiction classic was first published in 1951 and is strikingly prescient, with themes still relevant today. I’m sure that’s why the book remains popular. Post-apocalyptic fiction never seems to go out of fashion! I’ve read the book a few times but disposed of my old Penguin edition because the pages were too brown to read easily. I bought a new copy, an edition from 2008, and have finally got around to a re-read.

The story was written early in the Cold War and this is very obvious from the suspicions and paranoia evidenced by the characters. After strange green lights in the sky cause blindness in most of the world’s population, society breaks down. At the same time, intelligent walking plants called triffids, which had been engineered and then farmed, grab the opportunity to prey on the survivors. The main danger from triffids is their lashing stings, which can kill from a distance. Our narrator, Bill – who worked with triffids – was in hospital after triffid poison got into his eyes, which is why he could not see the green flashes. He wakes up to a changed world and navigates through a sinister London where looting, violence and plague are rife. Some people insist that the Americans will save them, but it becomes clear that no one is coming. At first Bill is lonely and aimless, but then he rescues a young woman, Josella, from a blind man who has captured her to be his eyes. Much of the book is a quest to find Josella after they are separated by rival factions who have strong ideas about how this brave new world should be run. Bill also adopts a girl, Susan, who has lost her family to triffids and who helps him devise ways to exterminate the loathsome plants.

There is a lot to admire about the book. It’s very British, gritty and realistic. Bill’s narrative voice is likable and displays some attitudes that are a little dated, but the roles of women are quite modern. Despite the book’s title suggesting that triffids are the main focus, they don’t feature very much until Bill is living in the countryside. Triffids are fascinating and the narrator encourages us to admire them. They are taking advantage of what has befallen humanity, but it’s humanity – specifically our scientific advances under the threat of nuclear war – which is to blame. Artificial satellites are key to this, which is a forward-thinking innovation in this book, written a few years before the launch of Sputnik 1.

The book was adapted into a simplistic sci-fi horror film (1962) and two BBC TV series, one that was quite faithful to the book (1981) and another which was updated for contemporary times but was not as faithful (2009). There is a sequel, The Night of the Triffids, written by Simon Clark, which I haven’t read.