John Wyndham

He did well in America in the 1930s, writing under various pen names and graduated to churning out the staple written diet of every red blooded American male - the detective story.

After trying many jobs including farming and law, he started writing short stories for publication in 1925.

Wyndham lived in Edgbaston, Birmingham until 1911 as well as many parts of England. After experiencing English prep school he was at Bedales from 1918 to 1921. He had careers in farming, law, commercial art and advertising. He first started writing short stories, intended for sale in 1925. He wrote stories of different kinds under different names, mostly for American publications, from 1930 to 1939. He also wrote detective novels. During WWII, he was in the Civil Service and afterwards the Army. He went back to writing stories for publication in the US in 1946 where he turned his hand to SF, some say unhappily. He wrote The Day of the Triffids in 1951 (by 1981 it had been reprinted 34 times) and The Kraken Awakes, (both translated into several languages), The Chrysalids, The Midwich Cuckoos (later filmed as Village of the Damned), The Seeds of Time, Trouble With Lichen, he co-wrote The Outward Urge, wrote Consider Her Ways and Other Stories, Web and Chocky, all published through Penguin.

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was born in 1903.