Christopher Samuel Youd wrote more than 50 novels and hundreds of short stories in a wide variety of genres and under various names, sometimes completing four or five novels a year and motivated at least partly by the need to provide for five children.
He cited Jane Austen as his favourite writer, but it was in the field of science fiction — writing as John Christopher — that he enjoyed his greatest success. Many critics and contemporaries regarded him as one of Britain’s finest writers in the genre, fitting comfortably into the tradition of H. G. Wells and John Wyndham.
His first big commercial hit was The Death of Grass (1956), a novel that combines the themes of global catastrophe, the collapse of society and a post-apocalyptic odyssey and struggle to survive. It was filmed as No Blade of Grass (1970), with Nigel Davenport and Lynne Frederick, and its themes are echoed in many other works, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). The Death of Grass was reissued in the Penguin Modern Classics series in 2009.
As John Christopher, Youd enjoyed considerable international success with the Tripods trilogy (1967-68), which was aimed at a young readership and featured teenagers who rebel against the aliens who rule Earth and have subjugated mankind.
The BBC and Australia’s Seven Network adapted it for television, with a relatively generous budget. It went out in the Saturday teatime slot in Britain in 1984-85, but was axed at a time when the BBC was also talking about dropping Doctor Who. The third part of The Tripods was never filmed.
Advertisement
John Christopher was born Christopher Samuel Youd, in Knowsley, Lancashire, in 1922 (and was known to his friends as Sam). His father was a factory worker, his mother a cook. The family moved to Hampshire when Christopher was about 10.
Christopher was a voracious reader of Dickens and Austen and the science fiction of Wells and later of Arthur C. Clarke, Wyndham and Ray Bradbury. He had his first short story published while still in his teens. The tale of a German bomber pilot who tries to discharge his load in open countryside and hits a camouflaged factory by mistake displayed Christopher’s fatalistic sense of humour and irony.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Corps of Signals in Europe and North Africa. He worked in a series of office jobs in London, writing in the evenings and at the weekend. His first novel, The Winter Swan, was published under the name Christopher Youd in 1949.
It told the story of a woman’s life backwards, from effect to cause, beginning at her graveside, but it failed to sell. Christopher would later comment that his mainstream novels were met with “massive indifference” by critics and public alike. He enjoyed more success with science fiction, initially short stories and then novels.
The idea of global, man-made disaster and its aftermath was popular with writers at the time and Christopher was one of the most articulate and imaginative explorers of its themes, with an emphasis on character and odyssey that probably owed more to Dickens and Homer than to Wells.
Advertisement
The Death of Grass was followed by The World in Winter (1962) and A Wrinkle in the Skin (1965). The latter began in Guernsey, to which Christopher had moved with his family. In The World in Winter affluent Europeans attempt to escape a new Ice Age by fleeing to Africa and the novel confronts issues of race and racial prejudice that were increasingly debated in Britain.
Christopher’s achievements in adult sci-fi were acknowledged by many contemporaries and in one episode of Star Trek in 1967 a pilot was called John Christopher. He significantly expanded his readership when he targeted what would become known as the “young adult” market with the Tripods trilogy, beginning with The White Mountains (1967).
In the stories Earth has been ruled by an alien race for decades. They live inside the eponymous tripods and enslave humanity. Teenagers go through an initiation ceremony in which they receive a “cap” that suppresses free will. However, a couple of youths flee from England to mainland Europe in search of a resistance group they have heard about.
The television adaptation ended prematurely, but The Tripods sold well on VHS and latterly DVD. The books remain popular, particularly in the US, and Christopher wrote a prequel called When the Tripods Came (1988).
He wrote several other sci-fi novels for the youth market, including the Sword of the Spirits trilogy (1970-72) and the Fireball trilogy (1981-86). He moved back to England and lived in Sussex. His first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife predeceased him. He is survived by his five children.
Advertisement
John Christopher (Christopher Samuel Youd), novelist, was born on April 16, 1922. He died on February 3, 2012, aged 89