Which Wyndham Trivia Quiz

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Answer: The Chrysalids

This story revolves around a group of young people who are able to communicate telepathically in a society where any deviation from a decided 'norm' is regarded as evil and the person who is different from the rest is banished to the Fringes of society, literally.

Answer: The Outward Urge

This book came out a good eight years before human foot was put on the moon, and described Wyndham's vision of what space travel would be like, written in another of his pseudonyms, Lucas Parkes.

Answer: Chocky

A lot of Wyndham's stories touched on the Cold War situation between East and West and this one is no exception. The governments on both sides show an inordinate interest in Matthew and his problem making for an exciting story all round. Later sequels were written for television, 'Chocky's Children' and 'Chocky's Challenge'.

Answer: Consider Her Ways

This was published along with a collection of short stories, but is a wonderful stand-alone Wyndham classic with an added twist - the main character returns to her own space and time at the close and is left determined to prevent such a future.

Answer: The Secret People

When the remains of little people were found in 2004 in Indonesia, imaginative minds recalled Wyndham's tale of pygmies living underground in this story. Mark Sunnet and his girlfriend crashed into Lake Sahara and found themselves stuck in a cavern, along with a whole community of pygmy people who were forced into hiding by larger humans.

As usual, this book included a lot of Wyndham philosophy on the ways of the world.