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John Wyndham (John Wyndham Lucas Parkes Beynon Harris) (July 10, 1903 – March 11, 1969) wrote under various combinations of his many names, but is best known for his science fiction as John Wyndham. He began writing SF during the 1930s, and most of his early work has a distinct pulp flavor, although he was a better stylist and created more realistic characters than most of his peers. Although several of his early works were set in outer space,

Wyndham's first major work was The Day of the Triffids (1951, also published as Revolt of the Triffids), which combined aspects of an alien invasion novel with a traditional disaster story. After humanity is afflicted with nearly universal blindness, a mobile, carnivorous plant threatens to become the top of the food chain. Hollywood turned the story into a predictable monster movie, but the BBC produced a rarely seen but more loyal version. Recently horror novelist Simon Clark wrote a less than satisfying sequel, The Night of the Triffids.

Wyndham's next novel was The Kraken Wakes (1953, also published as Out of the Deeps), which follows somewhat the same pattern. In this case, alien ships land in the oceans and begin melting the icecaps in order to flood the surface and destroy human civilization. This was followed by what may be his best novel, Re-Birth (1955, also published as The Chrysalids), set following a nuclear holocaust. A rigid, religion-dominated, anti-technological society ruthlessly exterminates any child who shows signs of mutation, and a handful of the latter decide to seek freedom elsewhere.

Wyndham's subsequent novels were entertaining but less impressive. The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) tells the story of alien invasion through impregnation. It was filmed twice as Village of the Damned. Trouble with Lichen (1960) explores questions of medical ethics and prolonged human longevity. An imaginary friend may be real in Chocky (1968). An uncharacteristic series of near-Earth space adventures was collected as The Outward Urge (1958, also published as The Troons of Space). Wyndham's posthumously published novel Web (1979) explores ecological questions when an attempt to create an island utopia encounters problems with the local insect life.

Wyndham was also an occasional short story writer, although only a handful of these were memorable. The major exception is the novelette, "Consider Her Ways" (1956), in which a contemporary woman finds herself in a distant future when men are extinct and women have constructed an almost hivelike future society. The protagonist is so horrified that she is willing to commit murder in order to change the future, but the author is less certain and the case made by an historian from the matriarchal state is solid and defensible. Other short stories of note include "Jizzle," "The Wheel," and "More Spinned Against". The text of many of his novels varies between the US and UK versions, in some cases quite extensively.

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