![]() However, when the virus starts to mutate and attack Britain’s own cereal crops, even the very grass which makes us such a green and pleasant land, then the inhabitants start to panic rationing is introduced and martial law eventually declared. At the start of the novel, the West decides to turn a blind eye and hope for the best as China’s rice crop is devastated by the Chung-li virus, resulting in famine and the death of millions. Although it is set in an era of steam trains and the wireless, it seems very modern in its global outlook. The Death of Grass is the more interesting and well written of the two novels and far more believable than The Day of the Triffids. Sometimes it seems that England has already descended into semi-barbarism since the 1950s, when the novels were written, and I know enough of world events to see that the collapse of society is entirely possible. I refused to believe that England would so rapidly descend into barbarism in the event of a catastrophe. At the time, I was a big Wyndham fan and absolutely hated The Death of Grass. ![]() If my fifteen year old self was reviewing the books, this post would be very different, as my opinion has completely reversed in the intervening decades. I read both novels about thirty years ago, when I was in my mid-teens, and seem to recall that I had borrowed The Death of Grass from the library purely because I liked the title. ![]() ![]() ![]() This week I have mostly been reading dystopian fiction more specifically The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and The Death of Grass by John Christopher. ![]()
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