John Wyndham Trivia

1. What year does the story begin in?

From Quiz "Wanderers of Time" - John Wyndham

Answer: 1941

In 1941 a man is walking through the woods when a large metal cylinder appears out of nowhere. Even more surprising is the man who emerges from it. He looks just like a nearby local (who is presently in Chicago) only 10 years older! No prizes for guessing what sort of machine this cylinder is...

From Quiz John Wyndham's "Chocky"

Answer: Matthew talking to himself

His (adopted) father, David, hears Matthew conducting an argument against an inaudible protagonist, who appears to be advocating a 32-hour day, an 8-day week (so it can be divided into halves and quarters) and a 32-day month. This one-sided conversation piques David's curiosity so much that he looks out of the garden shed to see who Matthew's talking to. But there's no one there!

From Quiz John Wyndham: 'The Kraken Wakes'

Answer: The Pink Nursery Book

Mike rejects Phyllis' choice as too long and out of key. Google cannot find the supposed author (Emily Pettifell) or 'The Pink Nursery Book', so I presume John Wyndham made them up, along with the lines quoted by Phyllis as apposite '- But Mother, please tell me, what can those things be That crawl up so stealthily out of the sea'. If you know any differently, please let me know!

From Quiz Which Wyndham

Answer: Trouble With Lichen

Francis Saxover was the biochemist who discovered the amazing properties inherent in a rare lichen which grew only in parts of China; his assistant, Diana Brackley, takes this discovery and uses it as she builds up a large cosmetic company.

From Quiz Wyndham's Triffid Tale

Answer: Tuesday

"You'll find it in the records that on Tuesday, 7 May, the Earth's orbit passed through a cloud of comet debris." So writes our hero, Bill Masen who woke up on the Wednesday morning suspecting that something was wrong because it sounded more like a Sunday morning.

From Quiz 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Answer: Green

The 'green flashes' cause everyone who sees them to go blind.

From Quiz The Chrysalids

Answer: Labrador

David and his family live in the rural farming community of Waknuk, a location surrounded by Fringes and badlands that act as a home to blasphemous savages. The people of Waknuk and surrounding communities, at times, are raided by these outsiders. Of course, David's family is very much opposed to the mutants outside. On one occasion, David absentmindedly says that if he had a third hand, he could perform a task easier. This leads him to be scolded by his father for his subconscious wish to be a mutant. On another occasion, David confides in his uncle, Axel, that he can communicate with Rosalind, his cousin, with his mind. This is kept secret.

From Quiz "Wanderers of Time" - John Wyndham

Answer: Ties him up and gags him

The time-traveller introduces himself as Roy Saber. Jones, the poor bystander, doesn't believe him because a. Roy Saber is not only a younger man but b. currently heading out of town by train. Roy insists that nevertheless he IS Roy Saber but it would be too awkward to explain. Then he ties up Jones commenting he's got nothing against him except he's a nuisance.

From Quiz John Wyndham: 'The Kraken Wakes'

Answer: English Broadcasting Company

This was written by John Wyndham in the days when the BBC was the only broadcasting medium in Britain.

From Quiz Which Wyndham

Answer: The Kraken Wakes

This book was originally published as 'Out of the Deeps', and is considered one of Wyndham's best. Here we see how mankind reacts to strange happenings from the ocean depths, including Russians and Americans using nuclear weapons while the British remain - well, British.

From Quiz Wyndham's Triffid Tale

Answer: Arctic and European Oils

The company had been called Arctic and European Fish-Oil until they started cultivating triffids for their oil. Just before Bill started to work for them they dropped the word 'fish' from their title.

From Quiz 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Answer: Masen

Bill Masen is, in my opinion, a wonderful character. His reactions are so perfectly rational that it makes the book so much more alive to the reader - which is actually quite frightening.

From Quiz "Wanderers of Time" - John Wyndham

Answer: To find his girlfriend

In 1941 the younger Roy Saber's girlfriend had mysteriously vanished one day. So for 10 years he built his time machine so he could go back and find her and bring her back with him (and consequently be the reason she vanished in the first place!). (N.B. This story was written in 1933 so John Wyndham could not have known there would be a war in 1941.)

From Quiz John Wyndham's "Chocky"

Answer: Matthew had a high temperature and begged his mother to make Chocky leave him alone

Matthew, having picked up some sort of 'flu bug at school, was delirious and didn't seem to know "whether he was talking to his mother, his father, or to some mysterious character he called Chocky". Mary used the technique that she had used with Piff and addressed a point above Matthew's head and told Chocky to go away and leave him alone. This worked.

From Quiz John Wyndham: 'The Kraken Wakes'

Answer: The Guinevere

The fireballs were the first indication that some thing strange was beginning to happen. All the wrong answers were ships sunk by the invaders in the book. Phyllis was particularly upset by the loss of 'The Queen Anne', as they had seen this apparently beautiful ship in Southampton.

From Quiz Which Wyndham

Answer: The Web

'The Web' was published in 1979 and in it Wyndham has a dig at idealists in his main characters, Walter Tirrie and Lord Foxfield, who both, in their own ways, feel it is their destiny in life to built Utopia.

From Quiz Wyndham's Triffid Tale

Answer: that triffids stung men across the eyes

The conversation recalled by Bill began with a comment on the noise made by the triffids; Walter described it as talking, but Bill was not convinced it was anything so sophisticated. They then went on to talk about how and where the triffid stung its victims, and Walter then prophesised that the triffid would be a blind man's superior.

From Quiz 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Answer: Sex is My Adventure

She is currently writing 'Here the Forsaken' when the book starts, she later refers to herself as the 'author' of her son David, but 'Sex is my Adventure' is her famous novel, which she cannot shake the influence of, in society, not even in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe.

From Quiz "Wanderers of Time" - John Wyndham

Answer: Betty

Unlike Jones, Betty recognises Roy straight away but wonders why he is older and wearing such odd clothing. He takes her back to his cylinder but before he can explain what it is, armed police arrive! Jones had freed himself and called the police. Roy quickly bundles Betty into the other side of the cylinder and leaps into the other side, pressing the button to return to 1951. But not before a cop fires a shot into the cylinder...

From Quiz John Wyndham's "Chocky"

Answer: That Matthew didn't seem to know if Chocky was a him or a her

David also thought (and I would guess, correctly) that while it's not unusual for little girls to have an 'imaginary friend', it was a bit odd for an 11-year-old boy. He was certain that there would be a word for some suitably gynandrous Greek. Mary started to worry and wondered whether they should take Matthew to a psychiatrist.

From Quiz John Wyndham: 'The Kraken Wakes'

Answer: Escondida

Escondida was an island in the Caribbean where the Watsons had gone with Bocker, who had compiled a probability list of where the next attack would come. Although Grand Cayman was attacked before Escondida, the 'sea-tanks' did come ashore at Smithtown, Escondida. The 'sea-tanks' did not attack England until much later. I made up Salvatina.

From Quiz Which Wyndham

Answer: The Midwich Cuckoos

This novel is probably the best-known of all Wyndham books, closely tagged by 'The Day of the Triffids', but only because of the number of films made since it was published in 1957. In my opinion it is a very wordy book, with long technical speeches from the intelligentsia among the characters and not enough of the ordinary people - the host families.

From Quiz Wyndham's Triffid Tale

Answer: he put what he considered a fair price for the food on the counter

It was not until Bill escaped from his responsibilities with the group of blind people that Coker tied him to that he was more comfortable with collecting provisions. This was the first time he took anything, and writes that "something of the old standards still clung".

From Quiz 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Answer: Clerkenwell

Bill and Josella collect lots of equipment to combat the triffids, which no-one else sees as being a threat.

From Quiz John Wyndham's "Chocky"

Answer: They felt it would help them to gang up on her

The 'ganging up on her if she was a girl' theory came from Mary, but David thought this was nonsensical. Matthew explained that Chocky didn't seem to know whether they were a boy or a girl and had said "that it sounded a pretty silly arrangement".

From Quiz John Wyndham: 'The Kraken Wakes'

Answer: Leslie Bray and Muriel Flynn

The 'sea-tanks' extrude bubbles, which split open, deploying long, sticky cilia that drag anything animate in (Phyllis later describes it as 'shrimping'). Muriel was a technical assistant and Leslie a recordist and were both unlucky enough to be caught. Leslie was apparently killed by a broken neck in the fall when the cilia got him, but Muriel was crying in terror. Mike's nightmares replace Muriel with Phyllis.

From Quiz Which Wyndham

Answer: Planet Plane

This was also published as 'Stowaway to Mars' when Wyndham wrote under different pseudonyms; he did not write as 'Wyndham' until after the war (his full name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris).

From Quiz Wyndham's Triffid Tale

Answer: he was stung by a triffid

After Bill and Josella met up they went to her home, and found that the triffids had overrun the place. Her father was killed in the house itself, and they saw the triffid standing over him, waiting for the body to decompose in order to eat.

From Quiz 'Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

Answer: Coker

The Colonel and Micheal Beadley are members of the group whom Bill and josella meet at the tower; Miss Durrant splits from the main group to form a more 'utopian' society and Coker turns out to be less of a problem later on.

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