The Death of Grass - John Christopher

First off I should point out that this book was originally published in 1956 - lots of things have changed, but so many things haven't!

The story tells of two brothers, one becomes a farmer of a valley farm in Cumbria, the other an architect in London.  When a worldwide virus destroys all variants of grass, and people start starving to death due to food shortages, London (and other cities) obviously becomes a dangerous place to be, especially when the plans of the government become known.

So a group of two families set off from London aiming for the Cumbrian valley, and hopefully safety, picking up others along the way across country.

I envisaged this book to be bleak and chilling (as described on the cover), but perhaps due to the state of the world now, or the fact that I've read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I found this to be rather sedate and less brutal than I expected.

I guess above all, it's very English - stiff upper lip and do the right thing - especially think of the women and children.  It seems that the author thought that civilisation would fail first in the cities (probably right), but it's in the northern counties and towns which he shows personal brutality and survival instincts.

Like The Road, I read this book in two days!  If anything it's a bit of an extended short story, and very easy to read with no difficult or in depth plots - just the story about the main characters and their trip across the country.

I understand a terrible film was made of it - perhaps a remake is due, but it would need to be low budget and English made for it work - and it would need to be set in the 1950s (this is so not a Hollywood blockbuster).

Since I seem to be drawn to dystopian/post-apocalyptic books I was bound to like this one - I'll be looking out for his other books.

21st - 22nd January 2011