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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Sam Youd on his friend John Wyndham

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SF Encyclopedia @sfencyclopedia.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

John Christopher sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/christ... was born on this day, so here are some of his book covers (artist: Karel Thole, John Griffiths, [uncredited] and Vincent Mahé):

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Tripodscast @tripodscast.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Co-host @selsijohn.bsky.social found a John Christopher in the wild (AKA Sam Youd, author it of The #Tripods series) novel. How many non-Tripods books have you read? We reviewed a selection for our episode dedicated to Sam Youd, with help from @sylepress.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/7gN2...

Photo of a book cover on a bookshelf in a charity shop: A Wrinkle in the Skin by John Christopher (AKA Sam Youd) - painted cover of two grounded/wrecked passenger jets on a ruined airport.

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Alex Will Resurrect That Werewolf Pic 🔸🏳️‍🌈 @alexwilcock.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

OTD 1922: Sam Youd (John Christopher) Writer of many dystopian novels, compelling to young me not just for his grim worldbuilding but their sour endings Most famous for The Tripods Trilogy, later a BBC1 series with an infamously (accidentally) bleak ending

The Prince In Waiting by John Christopher – stylised cover in reds and greens with soldiers in armour before a walled city with a head on a spike over its gate

Radio Times September 1984 cover – The Tripods Are Coming, with towering metal Tripod travel machine

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Tripodscast @tripodscast.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

If you haven't already, we devoted an episode to Sam Youd, with participation from @sylepress.bsky.social 'Happy Birthday Sam, RIP' anchor.fm/the-tripodscast

Tripodscast - Exploring The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher. Episode 10: The Worlds of Sam Youd - 'Heaving bosoms and that kind of thing.' Photo of author Sam Youd, AKA John Christopher, creator of The Tripods Trilogy (amongst many others). He is looking happy, towards the camera.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

"William Vine" -- one of SY's more rarely used pen-names

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Lulu Allison @luluallison.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

The Death of Grass by John Christopher

Book page with the following text:

She paused for a while. You're the leader, aren't you? The medieval chieftain - you said so yourself?' John shrugged. 'Does that matter?
'It does to you. I see that now. More than our safety and the children's.'
He said gently: 'Ann, darling, what are you talking about?'
'Duty. That's it, isn't it? It wasn't really Roger and Olivia, Steve and Spooks, you were thinking about - not them as persons. It was your own honour - the honour of the chieftain. You aren't just a person yourself any longer. You're a figurehead as well.'
'Tomorrow it will be all over. We can forget about it all then.
' No. You half convinced me before, but I know better now. You've
changed and you can't change back.'
‘I've not changed.'
‘When you're King of Blind Gill, she said, how long will it be, I wonder, before they make a crown for you?'

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

“The hours worth numbering, as the sundial says, are happy ones.” Sam Youd (born 16th April 1922)

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

From SY nature diary (Apr 16) “Woods now bosky as against bare. An overnight explosion of tree colour. ... Drakes and ducks in low over-river chases. Jackdaws and sparrow (?) vying in investigation of hole in Abbey wall. Bright sunshine after cold night -- mist on the marsh.”

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Gemma Bristow @konallis.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Read The Prince in Waiting, the first in the 1970s Sword of the Spirits trilogy by John Christopher. I found book 3 a couple of years ago, and saved it for posterity; I found book 1 last week. Hopefully it won't be many more years until I find 2.

Puffin paperback edition of The Prince in Waiting. The cover shows a young man standing at Stonehenge. Beside the book is a pottery model of a tower with battlements.

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Galen Pejeau @nightjargames.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Other purchases from the Scholastic Book Fair that got me drawing:

Cover from the Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper. A spooky character on an evil looking horse rears above a young boy in a doorway.

Covers from the Sword and the Spirits Trilogy by John Christopher. Post-apocalyptic Arthurian hijinks, radiation, and a giant rolling amoeboid monster that haunts my present day bestiaries.

Cover image from "Exiles of Colsec", plucky teens again, this time the alien colonizers is us.

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David Binnig @binnig.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

I read everything I could find by John Christopher in elementary school, then forgot about his existence for years. The “Sword of the Spirits” trilogy is even better than the Tripods books, imo.

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Tim Newman @mrtimnewman.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

1. Nobody told my new teacher I had to have special books. I picked out the prince in waiting trilogy by John Christopher. Hundreds more pages than normal. I then punished my way through more words in a week across a book a day than I had in all my previous years of school.

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Micah in Michigan 📸 @michi-gander.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

"This, like everything else, was taken for granted. But no longer by us; having started asking questions, we found that each doubt set loose a score of others." - John Christopher, "The White Mountains", 1967. Between this and "A Winkle in Time", I am LOVING my 1960's YA Sci-fi season.

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Ian McClellan @ianmac.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Sam Youd (John Christopher) definitely covered both ends of the science-fiction / fantasy genre with his adult and YA books. @sylepress.bsky.social

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BillyDee 🇨🇦 (CA) @billydee123.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

#BookSky Checkpoint 💙📚 The last book you read, the last book you added to your TBR, the last book you bought, and your current read

Last book I finished, When the Tripods Came by John Christopher (2 boys running from alien tripods)

Last book added to my TBR, The Prince in Waiting trilogy by John Christopher (man holding gun, in front of woman)

Last book I bought. Swallowtail and Sword by H. Leighton Dickson (photo of sword handle and butterfly)

Currently Reading. Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue by W.J. Burley (photo of Inspector Wycliffe)

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Sam Youd with Arthur Clarke, 1957

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Tripodscast @tripodscast.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Yes, they do re-read well! One of our co-hosts read The #Tripods novels, and watched the #BBC TV series for the first time. anchor.fm/the-tripodscast

Tripodscast - Exploring The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher. Episode 1: The White Mountains. Now a thrilling podcast series!
Main image is a photo of three lead characters dressed like yokels from the 19th Century. They are teenage boys smiling towards the camera, left-right: Will Parker (John Shackley), Henry Parker (Jim Baker), Bean-Pole (Ceri Seel).

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BillyDee 🇨🇦 (CA) @billydee123.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

💙📚If you want to introduce your kids to Sci Fi and just great reading you might want to try John Christopher's Tripod books, 4 of them. There were the initial 3 and a later prequel. Excellent series and I believe was also a TV series in the UK. #BlueSkyBooks #Tripods #JohnChristopher

Book cover. The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher (Tripods #2)

Book cover. The Pool of Fire by John Christopher (boy in balloon) (Tripods #3)

Book cover. When the Tripods Came by John Christopher (two boys running from Tripods) (Tripods 0.5)

Book cover. The White Mountains by John Christopher (Three boys running) (Tripods #1)

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Lulu Allison @luluallison.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

The Death of Grass by John Christopher Great read so far, and so prescient - remarkable that it was out of print ever.

Book cover for Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Death of Grass , a dark close up of dankly filmed grass blades.

Quote from book, Ann is reading a letter from her farmer brother in law. It reads:

'This bit at the end,' Ann said. She quoted:
In a way, I think I feel it would be more right for the virus to win, anyway. For years now, we've treated the land as though it were a piggy-bank, to be raided. And the land, after all, is life itself.'

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Tripodscast @tripodscast.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

For #worldbookday2025 why not read (or purchase) The #Tripods Trilogy, or any other books by John Christopher/Sam Youd from @sylepress.bsky.social (or Amazon!) (Then listen to our podcast!) #worldbookday

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

“The hours worth numbering, as the sundial says, are happy ones.” [Sam Youd, 16th April 1922 – 3rd February 2012]

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Tripodscast @tripodscast.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Join us on a journey as a first-time reader/viewer of The Tripods discusses the books, TV show, fandom, and author John Christopher. Along the way the podcast interviews the lead actors, and producer of the BBC TV series, and @sylepress.bsky.social listen at: anchor.fm/the-tripodscast

Tripodscast - Exploring The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher. Episode 5 - Part One: BBC TV Adaptation: First Series - 'Giant Pork Pies!' Main image photo is 6 teens/young adults dressed in the worst/excessive 80s, chic/punk fashions. They look like rejects from an 80s Duran Duran music video.

Tripodscast - Exploring The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher. Episode 7 Part One: The Cancellation! 'Bazooka'd' Image is BBC TV Centre with a giant red alien Tripod with large laser cannons on it's sides, looming besides it. There is smoke and fire beneath the Tripod. (A silver Tripod is behind in the distance). In the foreground is a smiling Jonathan Powell holding a smoking rocket launcher, and a fresh rocket of some kind in his other hand.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The Imaginary Museum homes in on the Prince (aka Sword) trilogy mairangibay.blogspot.com/2023/04/sf-l...

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

"... of the seventeen novels I have written for young readers, my own favourites are those which make up the second [Sword] trilogy" — Sam Youd

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Sarah Smith @sarah-j-smith.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

20 BOOKS CHALLENGE Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 2 #BookSky 💙📚 #Books #BookChallenge #20daybookchallenge

Cover for The White Mountains by John Christopher

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𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚜 🖊️ 🎥 #𝕎𝔾𝔸𝕨 @thepeterbriggs.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

20 didn't cut it! "Choose 20 Books that have stayed with you. One per day for 20 days, no particular order.💙📚 Number 36/20 (Thread!🧵) #Booksky John Christopher "The Pool Of Fire". Placeholder for the "Tripods" series. Christopher (Sam Youd) grew up in my walk-to local town of Huyton.

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Seth on the Nihil @lordsoftheseth.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

I like Bluesky very much. it also feels a bit like we're all up in the White Mountains from those John Christopher Tripod books

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ChernayaAkula @chernayaakula.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Kennste? "'The Death of Grass' (deutsch 'Tal des Lebens') is a 1956 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by English author Sam Youd (pen name John Christopher). The plot concerns a virus that kills off grass species, including rice and wheat." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dea...

en.wikipedia.org

The Death of Grass - Wikipedia

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Paul Russell @pwrussell.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 17 #booksky 💙📚 #bookchallenge #books

Front cover of The White Mountains by John Christopher. The cover picture shows three figures in silhouette caught in the beam of a search light from one of the large tripods that tower above a ridge of mountains, looking down on the figures.

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Shauna O'Meara @shaunaomeara.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

It's an amazing visual. Have you ever read The White Mountains by John Christopher?(First book in The Tripods series) We read it at school. It has some of these same visuals and is deeply creepy. They are only short books (three novellas if that) but I have never forgotten them.

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John Isles @selsijohn.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Thank you to Nicky Smalley for sending me this. He told me that he took this from a dead man.

A hand holding something out towards the camera: a triangle-shaped alien circuit with intricate patterns. It is a 3D printed replica of a 'Cap' from BBC TV's The Tripods, based on the novels by John Christopher.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

JC [writing in 1999, before social media] on WHEN THE TRIPODS CAME

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Corey 4 A(utum)nal Fun🍁 🏳️‍🌈 @thealmostbear.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

“It can babysit your kids, walk your dog.”

Still from the 1984 BBC/Seven Australia series “The Tripods”, based on the novel trilogy by John Christopher. A large metal object with three telescopic legs and a triangular shell at top lifts a person into it from several feet below as townsfolks look on. They are standing on the edge of a lake with a village house and trees behind them; the Tripod is standing in the water just at the edge. It is an overcast day.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

JC: “…of the seventeen novels I have written for young readers, my own favourites are those which make up the second [Sword] trilogy.”

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Ian McClellan @ianmac.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

In addition to ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ which a couple of people have already mentioned and which I loved reading at school; I’d also recommend two trilogies by John Christopher suitable for Young Adults: The Tripods and Sword of the Spirits, both had a Puffin issue back in the day.

Three book covers by John Christopher in the Tripods series. The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, The Pool of Fire.

Three book covers for a series by John Christopher. The Prince in Waiting, Beyond the Burning Lands and The Sword of the Spirits.

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David Binnig @binnig.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Yeah I second-guessed putting it that way, but anyway they’re not weird literary JG Ballard apocalypses, they’re compulsively readable stories about small groups of English people grinding through various flavors of societal breakdown.

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S. Klavir @klavir.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

It seems like a good time to reread The Death of Grass, by John Christopher, first published in the U.S. as No Blade of Grass in 1956. It was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post and illustrated by Earl Mayan. “Pirrie’s small body lay stretched across the camber of the road…”

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KDS 📖 🎲 🎮 @kdsbooks.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Book recommendation: The Tripods by John Christopher I re-read these a few years back as a throwback to my childhood. Whilst they are for younger readers, much of the subject matter pulls no punches & it remains an intelligently written scifi series that has held up astonishingly well #booksky 🪐📚💙

A book stack of the Tripod trilogy by John Christopher and its prequel.
White Mountains shows a Tripod walker.
City of Gold and Lead shows a green pyramid city under a dome.
Pool of Fire shows a lava font.
When the Tripods Came shows the alien ships invading Earth.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

THE GUARDIANS -- 1980s TV series (in German). www.amazon.co.uk/Die-W%C3%A4c...

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John @rakkasanjohn.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Day 12: The White Mountains, by John Christopher. #bookchallenge #books #booksky

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Sam Youd's THE GULL'S KISS came out under the pen name Peter Graaf. But originally written under his own name -- so is this intriguing, dark novel in fact genre fiction (detective, espionage) -- or something else? thesylepress.com/the-gulls-ki...

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Martin Nutbeem @martinnutbeem.bsky.social · 14/05/2024

Scifi novels & audiobooks I have enjoyed recently: Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman The Mountain in the Sea - Ray Nayler How High We Go In The Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu Translation State - Ann Leckie (all the Imperial Radch series!) The Tripods books by John Christopher (great revisit on audio)

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Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

The sort of novel whose publication in 1965 might well have informed Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis as they gravitated Doctor Who towards ‘base under siege’ stories. Christopher postulates an isolated setting and bleak alien invasion scenario, grimly explored through damaged characters. #ThePossessors

Book cover: “The Possessors” by John Christopher (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965) [Sphere, 1978 edition]

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Scarred For Life Books @scarredforlife.bsky.social · 28/10/2024

John Christopher is best known as the author of The Tripods book series (later a classic 1980s BBC adaptation). He also squeezed out this bizarre entry in the Nazisploitation genre, THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1966) - psychic S&M Nazi leprechauns in an Irish castle-turned-B&B!

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Gurdur @gurdur.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

5 writers I've read 5 books each by: 1/ Connie Willis 2/ Terry Pratchett 3/ KJ Parker 4/ John Christopher 5/ Alan Furst (lot more than just those, but,...) 💙📚 , #booksky

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MaconLeary @maconleary.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

The Bagthorpe Saga by Helen Cresswell - Grandma & Daisy are the greatest characters in kids lit. The Burning Lands series by John Christopher - post-apocalyptic fiction with a big reveal about the narrator's character. Terry On The Fence by Bernard Ashley - the scary big kids Had Their Reasons.

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The SYLE Press @sylepress.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Youd interviewed on Wyndham (brief clip, 2005) youtu.be/K9WPP-5jemA?...

youtu.be

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