The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)

The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)

Author: John Wyndham | Page Count: 241

"You know, my dear, while it's proper for us to be concerned, the responsibility for a remedy isn't ours. If it ever was, and that is highly questionable, the authorities took it away from us a long time ago."

Wikipedia classes the 1950s as a 'transitional period' in the history of science-fiction literature, sitting between the 'Pulp' of the 20s and 30s and the 'New Wave' that gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s. It may lack a classy name, but the 50s wasn't short of genre classics.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot (1950) and its first two sequels; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953); Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (1956); and Wyndham's own The Day of the Triffids (1951) are some examples. Sci-fi literature fans will probably recognise them all.

I don't feel that The Midwich Cuckoos is quite as good as most of the books mentioned above, but it's certainly worthy to occupy a shelf directly adjacent them, as its enduring popularity proves.

Chocky Trilogy: TV Miniseries (1984-86)

Chocky Trilogy: TV Miniseries (1984-86)

01. Chocky (1984) | 6 eps, approx 25 mins each is a children's TV drama adapted from the 1968 novel of the same name by John Wyndham.

The series is set in 1980s Britain, and features a young boy named Matthew Gore (Andrew Ellams) who's contacted by the titular Chocky, a highly intelligent extra-terrestrial being.

Chocky speaks only to Matthew, using him to ask unusual questions of the adults. The change in his behaviour soon draws attention to the boy.

I first watched it as a child myself, of about ten or eleven-years-old. It was intriguing and somewhat frightening, and because of that combination it stayed in my memory as I grew older. Since then I've assimilated so much sci-fi that the basic concept no longer seems particularly fresh, but viewing it from an adult perspective, sympathising for the first time with the parents of young Matthew as well as Matthew himself, gave me a whole different insight into what the series was actually about.

Chocky (1968)

Chocky (1968)

Author: John Wyndham | Page Count: 164

"An open mind is a difficult thing to keep."

My first experience of John Wyndham's fiction was the 1984 children's TV drama adaptation of his Chocky novel. Now, a great many years after that memorable encounter, I enjoyed it again in its original medium.

It's the story of an adopted eleven-year-old boy named Matthew Gore. Like many youths his age, Matthew has an active imagination. When his father overhears the boy holding what seems to him to be one side of a two-way conversation, he suspects it's that aspect in play. The truth, however, turns out to be much stranger.

The father, David, is the narrator of events. We learn about Matthew both through his personal observations and those of his wife, Mary, when the two compare their feelings and fears about the boy's changing behaviour.