158. (June 2026) The Death of Grass by John Christopher — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

The Death of Grass 1 - The basic concept

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:14:46 +0000

What did you think of the basic idea of a virus attacking food supplies rather than people directly? Did it make an interesting story?

The Death of Grass 3 - Wider society

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:15:56 +0000

At the start, the characters (reflecting wider British society) have an amused disdain of other countries and their responses to the virus. By the end, their world has closed down to a tiny and quite vulnerable enclave. How does this match with your experiences during COVID (positive and/or negative)?

The Death of Grass 6 - Gaming

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:17:55 +0000

What features of The Death of Grass could be incorporated into a game? Is it any different in game terms from any other kind of apocalyptic crisis that has to be navigated around?

The Death of Grass 5 - The ending

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:17:35 +0000

Like a lot of older SF (I'm thinking John Wyndham in particular) the story concludes at what you might call the end of the prologue. The virus has not been - and may never be - defeated, and it is unclear how or if the group will survive in the Westmorland valley. The group has successfully, though at considerable cost, reached this valley, but that's all.
Do you find this provocative or frustrating? Other post apocalyptic stories we have read (eg Ridley Walker) deal with life long after the crisis, rather than during it. Which choice do you prefer?

The Death of Grass 4 - The group hierarchy

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:16:57 +0000

By the end of the book, the group has settled into a social organisation that they themselves think of as medieval. In the middle stages the women are largely reduced to secondary status, able to voice things but not push them through as actions. By the end the only people - men or women - with significant agency are the leaders (like John) or those with obvious military skills (like Pirrie). Did this feel credible? Does it reflect 1956 thinking (when the story was first published) and if so how might a contemporary author address this?

The Death of Grass 2 - Interpersonal relationships

RichardAbbott — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:15:22 +0000

In London, Roger seems more forceful than John, but by the end, John is the group leader, sort of parallel to his brother David but with differences in the degree of control over their respective groups. What did you think of the shifts in group dynamics?

About John Christopher

RichardAbbott — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:49:40 +0000

Sam Youd was born in Lancashire in April 1922, during an unseasonable snowstorm.

As a boy, he was devoted to the newly emergent genre of science-fiction: 'In the early thirties,' he later wrote, 'we knew just enough about the solar system for its possibilities to be a magnet to the imagination.'

Over the following decades, his imagination flowed from science-fiction into general novels, cricket novels, medical novels, gothic romances, detective thrillers, light comedies ... In all, under his own name and a variety of pen-names, he published fifty-six novels and a myriad of short stories.

He is perhaps best known as John Christopher, author of the seminal work of speculative fiction, The Death of Grass, and a stream of novels in the genre he pioneered, YA dystopian fiction, beginning with The Tripods Trilogy.

'I read somewhere,' Sam once said, 'that I have been cited as the greatest serial killer in fictional history, having destroyed civilisation in so many different ways - through famine, freezing, earthquakes, feral youth combined with religious fanaticism, and progeria.'

Titles published under the pen-name of Hilary Ford and under his own name are also available on Amazon.

About The Death of Grass

RichardAbbott — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:48:36 +0000

A thought experiment in future-shock survivalism' Robert MacFarlane

'Gripping ... of all science fiction's apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting' Financial Times

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE

A post-apocalyptic vision of the world pushed to the brink by famine, John Christopher's science fiction masterpiece The Death of Grass includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane in Penguin Modern Classics.

At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain, society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother's farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits. A chilling psychological thriller and one of the greatest post-apocalyptic novels ever written, The Death of Grass shows people struggling to hold on to their identities as the familiar world disintegrates - and the terrible price they must pay for surviving.

John Christopher (1922-2012) was the pen name of Samuel Youd, a prolific writer of science fiction. His novels were popular during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably The Death Of Grass (1956), The World in Winter (1962), and Wrinkle in the Skin (1965), all works depicting ordinary people struggling in the midst of apocalyptic catastrophes. In 1966 he started writing science-fiction for adolescents; The Tripods trilogy, the Prince in Waiting trilogy (also known as the Sword of the Spirits trilogy) and The Lotus Caves are still widely read today.

If you enjoyed The Death of Grass, you might like John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.