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The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids Introduction to the Author John Wyndham was born in England, on July 10, 1903. When he was growing up, he went to a series of boarding schools because his parents were separated. He then attended an advanced co- educational school until he reached the age of eighteen. After he left school, Wyndham studied farming for a while, then "crammed" to write the examinations for Oxford University. Finally, in 1929, Wyndham picked up a copy of an American magazine called Amazing Stories, and became very interested in science fiction. Not long after that a series of stories under the name of John Beynon began to appear in Amazing Stories, and in another publication called Wonder Stories. He wrote English science fiction stories under the names "John Beynon Harris," "John Beynon," and "Lucas Parkes," as well as John Wyndham. By 1937, he was being called the best living British science fiction writer. Wyndham's work in science fiction is interesting in its emphasis. He does not generally concentrate on amusing the reader with strange inventions of technology from a bewildering future. The settings he employs for the future are logical, identifiable extensions of the world of today. His consuming interest lies in speculation about human nature and human behaviour. This would account for his attention to customs and moral codes displayed in the different societies in his books. Thus, time and again he points out the hypocrisy, bigotry and ignorance which are so often a part of our social life, and he stresses that changing conditions demand new ways, new customs and new codes of conduct. -
Steep Buildings and Monuments
Steep Buildings and Monuments Contents Introduction 1 Preface 3 Steep Parish Map 4 Ridge Common Lane 5 Lythe Lane 7 Dunhill and Dunhurst 7 Stoner Hill 9 Church Road 12 Mill Lane 25 Ashford Lane 28 Steep Hill and Harrow Lane 34 Steep Marsh, Bowers Common and London Road, Sheet 39 Bedales 42 The Hangers 47 Architects A - Z 48 The following reports also form part of the work of the Steep Parish Plan Steering Group and are available in separate documents, either accessible through the Steep Parish Plan website www.steepparishplan.org.uk or from the Steep Parish Clerk Steep Parish Plan 2012 Steep Settlements Character Assessment Steep Local Landscape Character Assessment October 2012 2 Introduction Steep is at the western edge of the Weald, within the Bedales grounds, the Memorial at the foot of the Hangers, with the Downs Library and Lupton Hall are outstanding and to the south. The earliest buildings were are Grade I listed. The influence of the Arts amongst a sporadic pattern of farmsteads and Crafts Movement can also be seen at at the foot of the Hangers’ scarp, which Ashford Chace, the War Memorial and Whiteman in the ‘Origins of Steep’ suggests Village Hall. were settled in early Saxon times. The The other influence that Bedales had on Hampshire Archaeology and Historic Build- Steep was through the parents of its pupils, ings Record confirms these suggestions. All who decided to live locally while their chil- Saints Church dates from 1125 and dren were educated at the School, Edward ‘Restalls’, a timber framed house on its east Thomas and his family being the prime ex- side is thought to be the oldest dwelling in ample. -
WSFA Journal 69
. »x.'N ■ •*' p. l^-> = f/M'i/ilf'if'''-. ///" fiii: It I - . ■I»'• n, ll i.^/f f •] ! i W 'i j :i m y't ) ' ' / •* ' - t *> '.■; ■ *"<* '^ii>fi<lft'' f - ■ ■//> ■ vi '' • ll. F V -: ■ :- ^ ■ •- ■tiK;- - :f ii THE WSFA journal (The Official Organ of the Washington Science Fiction Association) Issue Number 69: October/November, 1969 The JOURNAL Staff — Editor & Publisher: Don Miller, 12315 Judson Rd., Wheaton, Maryland, .•U.S.A., 20906. ! Associate Editors: Alexis & Doll Gilliland, 2126 Pennsylvania Ave,, N.W., Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 20037. Cpntrib-uting Editors:- ,1 . " Art Editor — Alexis Gilliland. - 4- , . Bibliographer— Mark Owings. Book Reviewers — Alexis Gilliland,• David Haltierman, Ted Pauls. Convention Reporter — J.K. Klein. ' : . r: Fanzine Reviewer — Doll Golliland "T Flltfl-Reviewer — Richard Delap. ' " 5 P^orzine Reviewer — Banks.Mebane. Pulps — Bob Jones. Other Media Ivor Rogers. ^ Consultants: Archaeology— Phyllis Berg. ' Medicine — Bob Rozman. Astronomy — Joe Haldeman. Mythology — Thomas Burnett Biology — Jay Haldeman. Swann, David Halterman. Chemistry — Alexis Gilliland. Physics — Bob Vardeman. Computer Science — Nick Sizemore. Psychology -- Kim West on. Electronics — Beresford .Smith. Mathematics — Ron Bounds, Steve Lewis. Translators: . French .— Steve Lewis, Gay Haldeman. Russian — Nick Sizemore, German -- Nick Sizemore. Danish ~ Gay. Haldeman, Italian ~ OPEN. Joe Oliver. Japanese. — OPEN. Swedish" -- OBBN. Overseas Agents: Australia — Michael O'Brien, 158 Liverpool St., Holaart, Tasmania, Australia, 7000. • South Africa — A.B. Ackerman, P^O.Box 6, Daggafontein, .Transvaal, South Africa, . ^ United Kingdom — Peter Singleton, 60ljU, Blodc h, Broadiiioor Hospital, Crowthome, Berks, RGll 7EG, United Kingdom. Needed for France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, S.America, NOTE; Where address are not listed above, send material ^Editor, Published bi-monthly. -
{PDF EPUB} ~Download the Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham John Wyndham: the Unread Bestseller
{Read} {PDF EPUB} ~download The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham John Wyndham: The unread bestseller. One of the drawbacks of being a bestselling author is that no one reads you properly. Sure they read you, but do they really read you? I've been thinking about this because Nicola Swords and I have just made a documentary for Radio 4 about John Wyndham. Wyndham is probably the most successful British science fiction writer after HG Wells, and his books have never been out of print. He continues to haunt the public imagination – either through adaptations of his own work (last Christmas gave us a new Day of the Triffids on the BBC) or through thinly disguised homages (witness the opening of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, which almost exactly resembles the first chapters of The Day of the Triffids, and is in its turn parodied in the opening of Shaun of the Dead). But because his books are so familiar, maybe we don't look too closely at them. I read a lot of Wyndham when I was a teenager. Then, a few years ago, when I was looking around for books to adapt as a Radio 4 "classic serial", I thought of The Midwich Cuckoos. Rereading it, I was startled to find a searching novel of moral ambiguities where once I'd seen only an inventive but simple SF thriller. If you don't know the story, the village of Midwich is visited by aliens who put the whole place to sleep for 24 hours and depart; some weeks later all the women of childbearing age find they are pregnant, and give birth to golden-eyed telepathic children whose powers are soon turned against the village and the world. -
Scratch Pad 46
SCRATCH PAD 46 THE JOHN WYNDHAM ISSUE Joe Szabo Scratch Pad 46 Based on the January 2002 issue of The Great Cosmic Donut life Life, for Acnestis by Bruce Gillespie, 59 Keele Street, Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia. Phone: 61-3-9419-4797. Email: [email protected] Cover graphic by Joe Szabo. 2 Contents JOHN WYNDHAM ISSUE: 6 JOHN WYNDHAM AS NOVELIST OF IDEAS by Owen 3 A TRIBUTE TO THE TRIFFID by Jane Sullivan Webster 4 2001 INTRODUCTION TO OWEN WEBSTER by Bruce Gillespie 21 LAST THINGS by Bruce Gillespie 5 1975 INTRODUCTION TO OWEN WEBSTER by 23 BOOKS READ SINCE SEPTEMBER 2001 by Bruce Bruce Gillespie Gillespie The John Wyndham Issue, Part 1 Age discovers Acnestid Wyndhamite A tribute to the triffid by Jane Sullivan TURNING PAGES, Melbourne Sunday Age, 25 November ised sequel’ published to celebrate the anniversary, which 2001: ‘Agenda’ section, p. 10: takes up the story 25 years after Wyndham left off. Simon Clark is a very popular British horror and science When I was 10, I read the most terrifying book in the world. fiction writer: as one reviewer says, in apparent approval, ‘the It was about a man who woke up in hospital one morning blood doesn’t flow through the text so much as pump with his eyes bandaged from an operation. Everything was arterially into the reader’s face’. Clark fans will no doubt be very quiet. Gradually he realised he was not the only person delighted, but his book didn’t do much for me. My memo- who couldn’t see. -
This Book Contains the Complete Text of the Hardcover Edition. Spelling Is British and Mistakes by Publisher Are Left In. HAILED
This book contains the complete text of the hardcover edition. Spelling is British and mistakes by publisher are left in. HAILED AS THE GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MASTERPIECE OF OUR TIME The Day of The Triffids by John Wyndham THE END BEGINS When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. I felt that from the moment I woke. And yet, when I started functioning a little more smartly, I became doubtful. After all, the odds were that it was I who was wrong, and not everyone else-though I did not see how that could be. I went on waiting, tinged with doubt. But presently I had my first bit of objective evidence-a distant clock stuck what sounded to me just like eight. I listened hard and suspiciously. Soon another clock began, on a hard, decisive note. In a leisurely fashion it gave an indisputable eight. Then I knew things were awry. The way I came to miss the end of the world-well, the end of the world I had known for close on thirty years-was sheer accident: like a lot of survival, when you come to think of it. In the nature of things a good many somebodies are always in hospital, and the law of averages had picked on me to be one of them a week or so before. It might just as easily have been the week before that-in which case I'd not be writing now: I'd not be here at all. -
Science Fiction Book Club Interview with Amy Binns (October 2019)
Science Fiction Book Club Interview with Amy Binns (October 2019) Dr Amy Binns is a senior journalism lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire. Her most recent work is a biography of the science fiction author John Wyndham, "Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters". John Grayshaw: Why do you think that Wyndham is not the “household name” that other comparable authors of the time are? In the 1950s, Wyndham did something extraordinary – he made science fiction mainstream. He took it out of the exclusive preserve of adolescent boys (all those girls in zippered spacesuits) and took it to a wider audience. Chocky first appeared in both Amazing Stories and a women’s magazine. But because of that he kind of fell between two stools at the time and has continued to do so. Sci-fi experts don’t really touch him because he “deserted” the genre, whilst for the literati, he is science fiction, not “literature”. Barry Turner: How did it come about [your research] as I've often toyed with investigating the life of much under-rated Welsh sci-fi whizz L.P. Davies? It started with me wondering who this sparky woman was who appeared in several Wyndham books. I felt sure she was a real person. Wikipedia just said he married an old friend late in life. I didn’t quite believe that was all there was to it… then a few google searches later I discovered the Wyndham archive was only an hour’s drive away in Liverpool, with 350 undigitised love letters to his future wife. -
In This Issue
Winter 2011 ~ Editors Ll. Doug Davis Gordon College 419 College Drive A publication of the Science Fiction Research Association Barnesville, GA 30204 [email protected] "' In this issue Jason Embry Georgia Gwinnett College SFRA Review Business 100 University Center Lane Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Continuity of Leadership in Interesting Times 2 [email protected] SFRA Business Managing Editor "Come Gather'Round People .. :' 2 Janice M. Bogstad Calling All Hands 3 University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire January 2011 Meeting Minutes 4 lOS Garfield Avenue State of the Finances 5 Eau Claire, W1 54702-50 l 0 SFRA 2011 Update 5 [email protected] Remembering Neil Barron 6 Nonfiction Editor Feature Michael Klein Genre Fiction in the (Pre)College Composition Classroom 7 James Madison University MSC 2103 Harrisonburg, VA22807 Nonfiction Reviews [email protected] The Animal Fable in Science Fiction and Fantasy 11 Fiction Editor Animal Alterity: Science Fiction and the Question of the Animal 11 Jim Davis Fiction Reviews Troy University Smith274 The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction 12 Troy, AL 36082 The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack 14 [email protected] The Dervish House 15 Cinco de Mayo 17 Media Editor The Fuller Memorandum 17 Ritch Calvin Media Reviews SUNY Stony Brook WOSIS Melville Library The Road 17 Stony Brook, NY 11794-3360 Inception 18 [email protected] Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 20 Battlestar Galactica: The Plan 21 The SFRA Review (ISSN 1068-395X) Caprica: Season 1 22 is published four times a year by the Paradox 24 Science Ficiton Research Associa FreakAngels 25 tion (SFRA), and distributed to SFRA Don't Look Back 27 members. -
An Interview with Damon Knight
No. 34 March 1972 An Interview With Damon Knight Conducted by Paul Walker* What has been the most interesting development in science fiction since 1960? What has been the most obnoxious, to you, personally? The most interesting development would have to be the movement of com mercial science fiction back toward the standards of literary science fiction from which it diverged about 70 years ago. This is what's putting some life back into the field for the first time since the early 50's. The least pleasant develop ment, I guess, would be Sol Cohen's reprint magazines. One way of measuring the health of the field is by counting the number of good new writers who appear in it each year. I wrote a piece about this for the Clarion anthology; the chart that goes with it shows a peak (24) in 1930, another (17) in 1941, another (28) in 1951, and then a long slow decline to 1965, the last year for which I had records — the figure there was 1. I have not been able to draw the rest of that line, but I think I know what it would look like. How has the role of editor fared in the same time? Generally speaking, if you're talking about the magazines and most of the paperbacks, I think science fiction editing has been a downhill thing since 1950 — more routine, less rewarding, less effective. Struggling to keep dead things afloat is no fun for anybody. As far as I'm concerned, my experience is not typical. -
March2008:Layout 1.Qxd
MATT’S GRAMMY MOMENTS ELLIS FREEBIE: FREAKANGELS by Matt Springer – I understand Sir George Martin waved Ringo Starr in front of him when he went up to get his Grammy for the sound- track to that Weird French Circus Show, Love, but it still felt like Ringo had to upstage Martin…yet again. It seems like the Fabs are constantly downplaying the contribution of George Martin to their sound, their records, and their overall greatness, as if it somehow diminishes their absolute bril- liance that they had a producer. Martin’s gotta be nearing death; it’s time to be gracious and give him the accolades he’s earned. Let the old boy accept a damn Grammy on his own, with his son, and get a standing ovation, by himself, for his work. Jeez. – Jason Bateman introducing the odd “My Grammy Moment” contestants was just unbelievably funny. Of course a cello is “a violin with a thyroid problem.” OF COURSE. – Is it weird that I like the fact that Kanye West is kind of an asshole? He doesn’t seem really apologetic about it, either. I really don’t believe his ego trips are calculated strategy or a “character” he plays; I think he really is that big of a jerk, and by Chris Stewart I’m glad for it. Pop music today needs more unrepentant dick- rather than read) and The Kraken head geniuses. There is a fine line between homage Wakes, in which deep-sea loving extra- and rip-off. Done right, you provide a terrestrials cause the Earth’s oceans to fresh take on a classic idea, which, one – Amy Winehouse. -
Introduction
Notes Introduction 1. The choice of literary fiction to the general exclusion of popular fiction is partly because the latter’s response to the Cold War has received some study, but also because study of the topic tends to overemphasise its source material. For example, see LynnDiane Beene paraphrased in Brian Diemert, ‘The Anti- American: Graham Greene and the Cold War in the 1950s’, in Andrew Hammond, ed., Cold War Literature: Writing the Global Conflict (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 213; and David Seed, American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. 192. 2. Caute, Politics and the Novel during the Cold War (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2010), p. 76. 3. Richard J. Aldrich, ‘Introduction: Intelligence, Strategy and the Cold War’, in Aldrich, ed., British Intelligence, Strategy and the Cold War, 1945–51 (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), p. 1. For useful summaries of the different schools of Cold War historiography, see S.J. Ball, The Cold War: An International History, 1947– 1991 (London and New York: Arnold, 1998), pp. 1–4; and Ann Lane, ‘Introduction: The Cold War as History’, in Klaus Larres and Lane, eds, The Cold War: The Essential Readings (Oxford and Malden: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 3–16. 4. Dwight D. Eisenhower quoted in John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War, new edn (2005; London: Penguin, 2007), p. 123. In the mid-1940s, the US assertion that ‘in this global war there is literally no question, political or military, in which the United States is not interested’ was soon echoed by Vyacheslav Molotov’s claim that ‘[o]ne cannot decide now any serious problems of international relations without the USSR’ (quoted in Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, new edn (1987; New York: Vintage Books, 1989), p. -
'Went the Day of the Daleks Well?' an Investigation Into the Role Of
Tony Keen ‘Invasion narratives in British television Science Fiction’ ‘Went the Day of the Daleks well?’ An investigation into the role of invasion narratives in shaping 1950s and 1960s British television Science Fiction, as shown in Quater- mass, Doctor Who and UFO If the function of art is to hold a mirror up to society, then science fiction (sf), through the distorted reflection it offers, allows the examination of aspects of society that might otherwise be too uncomfortable to confront. This essay aims to look at how invasion narratives, stories concerned with the invasion of Britain from outside, shaped three British science fiction series, and how those series interro- gated the narratives. The series will primarily be examined through aesthetic and social ap- proaches. Particular areas to be explored include the embracing and subverting of common assumptions about Britain’s attitude to invasion, and the differing attitudes to the military displayed. Introduction As an island nation, the prospect of invasion has always occupied a prominent place in the British popular imagination. According to Sellar and Yeatman, the two memorable dates in history are 55 BC and 1066, the dates of the invasions of Julius Caesar and William the Con- queror.1 Subsequent events such as the Spanish Armada of 1588 are also well-known mo- ments in history. It is inevitable that the prospect of invasion should produce speculative literature. Some works appeared around the time of Napoleon’s threatened invasion of 1803,2 but ‘invasion literature’ as a literary genre emerged out of the growing market for novels and short-story magazines, and is generally considered to have begun with the appearance of George Tomp- kyns Chesney’s 1871 story ‘The Battle of Dorking’,3 a story of the German conquest of Eng- land, prompted by the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871.