'The day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Bill Masen wakes in a hospital to find that he is the only sighted man in a city of the blind. During the next few hours, he walks the streets of London to find out exactly what has caused this catastrophe. That is the disorientating start to this wonderful novel, which hinges on those lucky few whose sight has survived. The cause of this mass blindness appears to have been a meteor shower the previous evening. All who witnessed it became victims.

Yet, Masen suspects that there is another force at work, the plant life that he helped bring into existence in Britain known as 'Triffids'. They are highly intellegent plants that are capable of movement. Perhaps most suspiciously of all, they are man-made, rumoured to have been stolen from a laboratory in the USSR. Governments in Western Europe allowed them to pollenate due to their oil being valuable.

Masen became a cultivator of sorts for this oil. This knowledge of the plants is an advantage that may yet help him survive. We bear close witness to his discomfort with this awareness. Wyndham is one of the first of many 20th Century storytellers to confront humanity's hubris when a technology gets out of control. The triffids stalk the streets as a constant menace, yet they are not the only hazard that Masen encounters.

He eventually locates another person who is still sighted. She has been tied and bound by one of the many wanderers that haunt the streets. Masen releases her and manages to find a colony that avoided the meteor shower. His companion, Josella, takes him to this compound and we are reassured that there may yet be a civilised future for those who are left. However, they are both captured and become prey for the gangs who are by now stalking the streets.

The most horrendous aspects of human nature are on display as sighted despots lead legions of the blind into the most deplorable acts in search of food. Wyndham confronts this collapse with a great deal of calm, he is not prone to sentiment when describing the end of society. Bill and Josella escape seperately yet in truth their trials have just begun.

Away from London, life is hardly a rural idyll. As the human population dwindles, Triffids begin to take control of the open land. Masen follows a clue to try and find Josella but he has no success and briefly becomes an unwilling member of a fundamentalist sect. He leaves with his new companion Wilfred Coker, who is just as sceptical about the value of religion after such an event. However, Masen quickly realises that they have no hope on their own.

During all this, Masen's one objective is to find Josella but he can only recall one possible place that she may be living. He leaves Coker to look after other survivors so that he can find the woman he loves. In such an aggressive world, where the protagonists are required to destroy repeatedly to survive, it is refreshing to note that a source of hope still exists. It is a harsh, desperate life that they lead together but it is perhaps the best they can manage.

There are no melancholic reflections by any of the main characters, just a simple need to adapt and survive. Wyndham is reflecting the era in which he is writing, published in 1951, this toughness perhaps reveals the difficulties of living through a major war. Masen and Josella are decent people who give purpose to each other, they rarely lapse into self-pity. Yet, as their world collapses, they have to work hard to move forward.

At times, the dialogue in the novel feels a little strained. Even by fifties standards, it seems overly formal yet there are no such questions about the narrative. Wyndham has created an excellent book that attempts to answer why we as a species deserve to survive. It is a credit to him that the answer is never in doubt.