Wesley’s World

Influential indie-rock band The Triffids are experiencing a renaissance.

The Triffids formed in Perth in the late 1970s.  I was in Primary school at the time. Their back catalogue has been remastered and re-issued around the world, on July 5 they will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and a new documentary is in production about lead singer Dave McComb, who died tragically in 1999 from heart-transplant complications.

“There is a growing recognition that his songs are simply some of the best ever written. ”

The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic novel written in 1951 by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. Although Wyndham had already written other novels, this was the first that he had written under this name and it appeared to be by a new author. It was this novel which established him as an important writer, and remains his best known.

Triffids are (fictional) plants capable of animal-like behaviour: they feed on rotting meat, are able to uproot themselves and move about on their three “legs”, possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting, and appear to communicate with each other
It was a great book and a even better movie
The narrative begins with Masen in hospital, his eyes bandaged after having been stung by a Triffid at one of the farms. He discovers that while he has been recovering, the light from an unusual meteor shower has rendered most people on Earth blind.

The Day of the Triffids was cited by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the thirteen best science-fiction horror novels