John Wyndham · 1951 · survival

John Wyndham's 1951 catastrophe novel. Bill Masen wakes in a London hospital with bandaged eyes to find that a dazzling meteor shower has blinded almost everyone on Earth overnight, and that the triffids, tall, mobile, venomous plants once farmed for their oil, are pulling free and beginning to hunt. With his sight and a few other survivors, Bill flees the collapsing city for the countryside, and at last for an island refuge.

1. 1
   London

   Bill Masen wakes in hospital, his eyes bandaged, to find the city blinded overnight and the triffids loose.

2. 2
   Shirning Farm

   Out to a fortified farm in the Sussex Downs, holding the triffids at bay year after year.

3. 3
   Portsmouth

   West at last to the Hampshire coast, ahead of the closing triffids.

4. 4
   Cowes

   The boat crosses the Solent and lands at Cowes on the north coast of the island.

5. 5
   The Isle of Wight

   And across the water to the Isle of Wight, where the sighted are building a refuge.