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The Day of the Triffids By John Wyndham Read the BBC's article  about John Wyndham  "The sky's simply full of shooting stars," the nurse says. "All bright green. They make people's faces look frightfully ghastly, and sometimes it's almost as light as day -- only the wrong colour." Lying in a hospital bed, and with his eyes buried underneath thick bandages, it seems to Bill Masen that he must be the only person who is missing the display. The announcer on the six o'clock news had described it as an amazing scene that was not to be missed and, according to Bill's nurse; thousands of people are in the parks and on the heath, and very much not missing it. People have even climbed onto flat roofs to get a better view, and all of the curtains in the hospital have been pulled wide open so that the patients don't miss out either. "It's such a pity that you can't see it," the nurse tells him. The following morning meteors and shooting stars are the last thing on Bill's mind because his bandages are due to be taken off and he is eagerly awaiting the doctor. The doctor doesn't come though. Nor does breakfast for that matter and the hospital seems unusually quiet, as do the streets below his window. Bill can't hear any traffic at all and he get so worried that he presses the bell to summon the nurse, but the nurse, like the doctor and his breakfast, does not come. Eventually Bill has no choice but to take off his own bandages and he soon discovers that the spectacular astral display the night before has blinded everyone who saw it. Ironically, Bill who now can see finds his doctor who now cannot.  The doctor, not wanting to face this strange new world of the blind leading the blind, commits suicide by throwing himself through a plate glass window. When Bill leaves the hospital he finds that a lot of people are killing themselves. A lot are also killing each other and the streets can be a dangerous place to be, even for someone who still has a fully functioning set of peepers. Bill manages to find a few other people who can see, but there are not many of them. He also discovers that the triffids have not been slow in taking advantage of the situation. The triffids are a rather unusual species of plant that are capable of pulling up their roots and walking. The idea of perambulating plants is frightening enough, but these plants can sting too, and a triffid sting is usually fatal. The Day of the Triffids was first published in 1951 and because of this the language that is used is perhaps a little dated.  I can't, for instance, imagine too many nurses these days who would say: "They make people's faces look frightfully ghastly."  In general I prefer to read a book where the language has a more modern feel to it, because I then find it easier to be pulled into the story and to sympathize with, and care about the characters. If, on the other hand, I am not comfortable with the language it usually breaks the spell sufficiently enough for me to put aside the book in question and give it up as a bad job. I am glad to say that I never had to put aside The Day of the Triffids. After reading a few pages I managed to get used to the voice of the narrator, Bill, the story did pull me in and it kept my interest all the way to the end. My copy of Day of the Triffids (published by Penguin) is 233 pages long and contains an introduction by Barry Langford. In his introduction Langford details some of the comments that the story perhaps makes on subjects like the cold war and biological and nuclear warfare etc. Langford also makes comparisons between Wyndham's story and H G. Well's The War of the Worlds. I think that a lot of readers might find this introduction interesting but, to be honest, I never finished reading it.  I found it boring, and was more interested in the fiction than in any hidden statements or politics, and so, introduction excepted, I found The Day of the Triffids to be a very good read indeed. HOME