A Wrinkle in the Skin

by John Christopher

A Wrinkle in the Skin (aka The Ragged Edge) is a 1965 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by the British author Samuel Youd under the pen name of John Christopher.

A massive series of earthquakes on a worldwide scale reduce cities to rubble, plunging survivors into barbarism. Most of western Europe is dramatically uplifted, transforming the English Channel into a muddy desert, while elsewhere lands are plunged below sea level and flooded.

The protagonist is Matthew Cotter, a Guernsey horticulturalist who finds himself one of only a handful of survivors on the former island. Cotter decides to trek across the empty seabed to England, in the faint hope his daughter has somehow survived.

Genres: Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fiction, Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Novels, Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Samuel Youd was born in Huyton, 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 he published fifty-six novels and a myriad of short stories, under his own name as well as eight different pen-names.

He is perhaps best known as John Christopher, author of the seminal work of speculative fiction, The Death of Grass (today available as a Penguin Classic), and a stream of novels in the genre he pioneered, young adult 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.’

In an interview towards the end of his life, conversation turned to a recent spate of novels set on Mars and a possible setting for a John Christopher story: strand a group of people in a remote Martian enclave and see what happens.

The Mars aspect, he felt, was irrelevant. ‘What happens between the people,’ he said, ‘that’s the thing I’m interested in.’

Reviews

[John Wiltshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised I haven't come across this book before. Not only is is a superb little post-apocalyptic novel, it's exceptionally well written and interesting. Set and written in the 1960s, it's also a fascinating slice of a life gone by--attitudes that are surprising, even to those of us who remember living this era. I've been sharing this story with my teenage creative writing class and causing quite a stir. Lots of furious teenage girls claiming that Katniss Everdeen is a more realistic representation of a woman's life post apocalypse (kickass and better than all the men). I haven't got the heart to tell them that, no, A Wrinkle in the Skin is more accurate. Women don't fair well in societies where law and order break down.
Highly recommended so far. I'll update when done.
Finished this book relatively quickly as it's so easy to read, compelling and very well written. Recommended for anyone who likes a great read.

[Hux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Chrisopher’s magnificent The Death of Grass and loved it, I thought I’d give another one of his post-apocalyptic novels a look and honestly, I thought this was even better; it’s an absolute banger, beautifully written, gripping, and producing exactly the kind of atmosphere I want from my post-apocalyptic setting.

The book opens with the protagonist, Matthew Cotter, having a drink with friends at their house on the island of Guernsey and talking about the recent spate of earthquakes that have taken place around the world. They are an anomaly but fundamentally occurring along the plates where one might expect earthquakes to happen. That evening Matthew hears a noise in his garden and investigates, at which point a gigantic earthquake occurs, one so massive that it redesigns the planet. He searches for survivors and finds only bodies and destruction. Until he hears Billy, a ten-year-old boy, whose family have been killed but who has survived under the debris. When Matthew investigates the coastline, he discovers that the sea has entirely gone! Later, they find a donkey, a cat, and finally a small group of survivors led by a slightly authoritarian man named MIller. Matthew helps them forage and build a place to live but his thoughts turn to his daughter Jane, living in England, especially when a man arrives from Sark having walked across the now drained seabed alone. This convinces Matthew that he should walk to England and search for his daughter. When he leaves, Billy follows him and, having convinced him to accompany him on this journey, the two set off on their adventure.

Where to begin? I devoured this book. It not only offered me my guilty pleasure (post-apocalyptic fiction) but it did so with superb writing and wonderful pacing. Honestly, when I finished, I could happily have continued reading more but alas, the book ended. There are so many wonderful moments (especially if, like me, you are a fan of the genre) such as when they find the tanker on the dry seabed and live with captain Skiopos for a couple of days, watching movies, eating his freshly baked bread, tolerating his mildly bizarre behaviours. Or when they meet April and Laurence and their group of survivors and Matthew falls in love with a fictional version of April, a companion beyond the ruins, an angel on his shoulder. The two of them have an immediate connection, one which is almost visceral in nature.

Her simplicity and ease met a responding serenity in his own mind; the two fed on each other and grew with the feeding. The idyll was transmuted from fantasy into human terms. It was an episode into which each had stumbled and in which each, here and now, found contentment, for whatever private reasons. It was an escape, probably, but explanation did not alter it.

One of the things I liked about Death of Grass was how blunt Christopher is when it comes to the realities of a post-apocalyptic world. He knows that people become the real danger, that the human animal is elevated to civility only by means of economic comfort and enforced societal behavioural norms. There’s a moment, for example, when Matthew is concerned about April potentially being raped and she laughs in his face and explains that she and the other women in their group have been raped several times already since the event occurred (known as the bust). She even mocks his delusional notions about people, the world, and his own futile search for his (almost certainly dead) daughter. It’s a terrible yet mesmerising moment in the book. And yet they go on, he and Billy, searching for her in this reshaped earth.


I won’t spoil the ending; it’s very satisfying, and it leaves the door open to countless possible futures. Christopher really is remarkable when it comes to human nature, and he writes in such a satisfying and nourishing way. I adored every second of this and would love a film version (why isn’t there one?). It maintains a very basic plot but produces some genuinely high-quality prose all the way through. This is precisely what I want apocalypse fiction to be. Loved it! I’m almost sad that I have to read something else now. Magnificent!

[Efka · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A wrinkle in the skin" is a very surprising read for me. Once, I've decided that I have not read enough of the classic science fiction and somehow, but luckily enough, this book turned out to be in my "to-read" plans. And despite there's absolutely nothing in common with "regular" science fiction - it is actually more of an catastrophe thriller or a post-apocaliptic fiction with a very strong social perspective - I enjoyed this book a lot.

At moments this book really reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's "The road". Both are post-apocalyptic, both are based on a father-son connection and their journey, both basically just follow their survival day by day, without any extreme events. I'd say that Christopher's version is less violent though, and there's almost no bloodshed in this book. And that is not bad, actually.

This is a chillingly realistic, yet at the same time very well written and, in a way, a beautiful book. 5*.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid, I very much enjoyed John Christopher's books: the Tripods Trilogy ("The White Mountains", "The City of Gold and Lead", and "The Pool of Fire") as well as the related book "When The Tripods Came"; and also his Sword of the Spirits Trilogy - "The Prince is Waiting", "Beyond the Burning Lands" and "The Sword of the Spirits".
The first trilogy is a sort of "War of the Worlds" scenario where human survivalists struggle against the alien Tripods that have taken over Earth. The second trilogy is a post-apocalyptic scenario where after nuclear holocaust, England has reverted to a medieval feudal society.
I also liked "Dom and Va," a prehistoric story about a boy and a girl, one from a hunting society, the other from a more agrarian background...
But I never knew that Christopher, (real name Christoper Samuel Youd) had written over 70 books, many of them adult novels.
The 1965 book "The Ragged Edge" (also published under the title "A Wrinkle in the Skin") is in the post-apocalyptic vein he is known for. However, it is definitely not a teen novel.
In this case, the apocalypse comes in the form of massive, world-wide earthquakes. It's not believable - I'm not sure if the problems stem from Christopher's lack of knowledge of plate tectonics, or the state of geological knowledge in the 60's - but hey, just ignore that and get on with it. Big earthquakes strike.
Our protagonist, a somewhat reclusive man named Cotter, living on the British island of Guernsey, survives.
After meeting up with some other survivors, and forming a father-son type bond with a young, orphaned boy, he goes on a somewhat obsessive quest to try to find his teenage daughter, who had been away at college.
The book gives a very negative and rather sexist(?) viewpoint on humanity. The positive aspects and outcomes feel sort of tacked-on - like, after the other things that have been shown, they don't ring true.
On the island, the first group of survivors fall instantly under the sway of a "strong" man named Miller, who seems to have gained control simply by bossing people around. OK, I can hang with the breakdown of society & all that - but within TWO DAYS, this guy has appointed himself leader, and demanded sexual control of the surviving women, and is talking about founding a dynasty. I can't imagine people, even in the face of disaster, going along with something like that. The first survivor-woman, who goes along with it, is really just referred to as a "slut," as if that explains it. Seriously, I think after losing all your family, friends, belongings, etc, it would take most people a while to even start WORRYING about sex.
Anyway, when, on his quest to the mainland, Cotter falls in with another group of survivors, this group seems a lot better. The main woman in the group seems strong and intelligent, and they have a civilized attitude, and an educated doctor in the group, etc. But soon Cotter discovers that his assumptions have been a sham, that the woman have simply learned to accept repeated violent rapes from marauding looters, and to acquiesce to the lusts of even the most civilized-seeming men in the group.

I don't know. I don't actually think of myself as having a very high opinion of people in general, but on the other hand, there seems to be this weird urge to think of people as being worse than they are. Or maybe it's that we want to believe that people NEED structure and authority in order to behave well, and without it, things will fall apart instantly?
It reminds me a lot of the reportage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans - the news was talking about how aid couldn't even get in because it was chaos, people were being raped and murdered left and right, wild looters were shooting at aid helicopters, etc...
But when the actual facts came out, one person had fired a blank into the air to try to attract the attention of the aid helicopter - because they needed aid! And the rapes and murders for that time period were actually MUCH LOWER than the number of rapes and murders that usually happened in New Orleans on an AVERAGE day!

In my perception of things, I really think that, for many people, disaster can bring out the best in them, rather than the worst. I think many people will find themselves capable of banding together, cooperating and helping one another to an extent that in normal, day-to-day life, they would not.

So, that's my positive, pro-humanity statement for today!

[Maureen Grigsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old science fiction apocalyptic novel.

[Donna Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I read it on my sister's recommendation. It is interesting and well-written. I was captivated enough to stay up late to finish it. I awoke the next morning with my mind swimming with the images and elements of this fascinating story.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although most of us probably deem earthquakes to be relatively infrequent phenomena, the truth is that, as of this writing in late November, almost 150 such seismic events, ranging from relatively minor to completely devastating, have transpired somewhere in the world in 2016 alone. That's an average of one earthquake every two or three days! But although these events are not only, uh, earth-shattering for those in the areas directly affected, few would deem them a possible concern for long-term, apocalyptic scenarios, as might be the case with, say, an asteroid collision...except, that is, British author John Christopher, in his 1965 novel "A Wrinkle in the Skin." Christopher, who was born in Lancashire in 1922, had already pleased this reader with his 1956 classic "The Death of Grass" (which told of a worldwide panic after all wheat and barley crops are infected with a virus), and had followed up with 1962's "The World in Winter," which depicted a new Ice Age. A "Wrinkle in the Skin" (aka "The Ragged Edge") turns out to be another very fine Christopher novel in the postapocalyptic vein, depicting a world in chaos following the mother of all quakes.

In the book, the reader makes the acquaintance of Matthew Cotter, a middle-aged divorcé who is currently living on the Channel Island of Guernsey and who has become a grower of tomatoes. Satisfied with his lot, if not especially happy, he finds his life quite literally upended one night when a monstrous quake hits the small island, following a season of similar quakes around the world. Cotter, as it turns out, is one of the few survivors on the island, where practically no building has been left standing. To his astonishment, he also soon finds that all the water in the Channel has been drained away, leaving the Channel Islands islands no longer! After taking up with a band of his fellow survivors for a short time, Cotter resolves to walk across the mud of the now-drying seabed and attempt to trek on to East Sussex on the mainland, to see if his daughter Jane might still be alive. He is joined by a 10-year-old boy, Billy, whose life he had previously saved after the Guernsey disaster, and together, the two explore this strange new environment, where the floor of the sea now lies open to the light of day. Once on the mainland, the pair takes up with another band of survivors, who have managed to stay civilized in the face of an increasingly violent and starving populace. Ultimately, Cotter and Billy decide to press on, but can Jane really still be alive in the midst of such devastation and universal panic?

"A Wrinkle in the Skin" was chosen for inclusion in Jones & Newman's excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books," and I suppose that it might strike some as an unusual choice, in juxtaposition with the other supernatural, fantasy, serial killer and satanic novels therein. Still, I'm certain that anyone who has ever been in even a minor earth tremor (thank heavens, I never have!) would deem it a fairly horrifying experience, indeed. Beyond this basic premise, Christopher's novel does offer up any number of scenes guaranteed to chill. His descriptions of the razed buildings and countless putrescent corpses pull no punches, while his depictions of the Channel seabed toe the fine line between eerie and the phantasmagorical (although these latter descriptions don't come close to the borderline psychedelic ruins found in J.G. Ballard's postapocalyptic outings "The Drowned World" and "The Crystal World"). Cotter and Billy have any number of run-ins with violent "yobbos," and these sequences, too, are unfailingly tense and frightening. And then there is the wonderfully dreamlike interlude in which our wayfarers come upon a beached oil tanker in the middle of the Channel, are welcomed most hospitably by its sole occupant, Captain Skiopos, and slowly come to the realization that the captain has become quite insane. But what apparently horrified British author Simon Clark the most, and induced him to choose the novel for inclusion in the Jones & Newman volume, is the matter-of-fact scene in which April, a survivor who Cotter takes up with, describes the multiple rapings that she has been subjected to since the calamity began. Again, Christopher does not sugarcoat the events in his novel; it is a fairly realistic affair, right down to Cotter's finding (or not finding...I would not think of revealing which) Jane amongst all the destruction.

John Christopher, who is perhaps best known today for his YA trilogy dealing with The Tripods, is an excellent writer, of course, and his 1965 novel shows him in great form, a master of both dialogue and interior monologues, convincing geographical description, and well-drawn characters. Cotter is an especially fine creation, a man who at first blush is presented as aloof and indifferent, but who soon reveals himself to be caring and decent; his relationship with the sweet and spunky Billy is especially well described. "A Wrinkle in the Skin" ends on a fairly abrupt yet oddly pleasing note; I wouldn’t exactly call it a happy ending, although it does hold out a promise of happiness for Cotter in the future. The author, had he chosen, could easily have made this novel the opening salvo for an entire series of books set in an increasingly seismically challenged world, but as it stands, the novel nevertheless succeeds in satisfying on its own. It is a fairly relentless page-turner, and one that would make for a terrific Hollywood blockbuster, if done right.

Inevitably, the book is not without some very minor problems. My main complaint is that we never learn precisely the extent of the devastation. Yes, we see that the Channel and southern England have been pretty much wiped out, but what about northern England? And France? And the U.S., for that matter? In an early section, one of the characters, a geologist, theorizes that our planet could very well now be entering into a new phase of mountain building, and it would have been interesting to learn whether that statement had any merit or not. Again, this is an area that some possible sequels might have touched upon. My other quibble with Christopher's book is something that only fans of old Hollywood movies (yeah, that’s me) would notice, and involves Captain Skiopos showing Cotter and Billy a film starring (once husband and wife) Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. The only problem is, the two never appeared in a film together! But again, this is a minor quibble, when stacked against Christopher's significant accomplishment here.

Writing in the Jones & Newman volume, Clark mentions that "A Wrinkle in the Skin" was "real terror for the 1950s reader," and I suppose the case could be made for the 21st century reader, as well. Scottish critic David Pringle, writing of the book in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," says it is "perhaps Christopher's best catastrophe tale after his famous 'The Death of Grass,'" and he is a source that I've long trusted. Exciting, evocative and at times quite moving, Christopher's novel is perfect fare for the horror or sci-fi fan who's in the mood for something different. As was the case with the Channel Islands and all of southern England, it will probably leave you pretty well shaken...

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a perfect destination for all fans of John Christopher....)

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this was one that came up in a discussion of post-apocalyptic novels. Although it is not one based on viral pandemics, it does follow that similar idea of global catastrophe causing change, as did John’s other, perhaps more famous novel, The Death of Grass, which I reviewed here in 2009 .

This one starts like something out of a middle-class John Wyndham novel. Matthew Cotter is a tomato grower in the balmy climate that exists on the island of Guernsey. In the first few chapters we meet divorcee Matthew who seems to be living a very pleasant life and his lovely neighbours who also appear to live in a peaceful rural landscape without too much grief or fuss.

Once all this is set up of course we then get the catastrophe. There is a major earthquake which flattens Matthew’s village into rubble. We later discover that this is one of what appears to be global earthquakes. This one is so extreme that the English Channel, the body of water separating the islands of Guernsey from the mainland of Britain, is drained.

In the next few chapters Matthew finds himself forlornly looking for other survivors. All of the buildings have been destroyed and Christopher doesn’t spare us the gruesome details of bodies in the rubble. To a readership a mere twenty years after the horrors of World War II this must bring back some dreadful memories.

After a few days Matthew finds Billy, a young boy now orphaned, and together they travel looking for other survivors and food. Unfortunately, Billy and Matthew do not meet many who are friendly. One group led by a thug named Miller has effectively reverted to slavery, with young women being kept for housework and future breeding purposes. However, Miller realises that Matthew is an educated man and sees Matthew as a viable Deputy to himself in order to survive as a group. Matthew goes along with him, but secretly is biding his time to escape. He hopes to go find Jenny, his teenage daughter living in Sussex. Eventually Matthew slips away only to find that Billy has followed him. Together they decide to walk along the now dry seabed of the English Channel to get to the mainland.

The story could go in two directions. We could have the epic sweep of descriptions around the world to show that this is a global phenomenon – for if it wasn’t, where are the aid workers from other countries?  Instead the story focuses on Matthew and Billy, which makes the events seem both more personal and more understandable. They soon realise that even on the mainland there is no chance of assistance. Towns are also reduced to rubble. There are no radio messages, no aeroplanes seen – everywhere is reduced to its basics. Parts of the coast have collapsed into the sea.

However, this is not the main focus of the story. Instead we experience what is happening around Matthew and Billy. On their travels they meet other people but most of them are in shock and avoiding others, as gangs of scavengers travel around attacking other groups and stealing their food and resources. The world seems to have reverted back to barbarism, something that Christopher doesn’t flinch from describing. There is brutality, child abuse and rape. Some of the most harrowing scenes are when one of the women tells of her experiences in the hands of other men in a matter-of-fact manner.

Others deal with the stress of the situation oddly, and Christopher does well to describe some of the characters clearly in shock. Matthew and Billy meet a survivor on board a ship now stranded on the dry seabed of the English Channel. The captain is friendly and gives the travellers food, a bed to sleep in and clothes, but we later discover is a person coping with the calamity by trying to control things on the ship to an unhealthy degree. There are religious zealots ranting on the devastated streets.

In the end there is a solution, but it is one born more of resignation rather than positivity. The ending has a degree of optimism but there are some quite dark moments to get through before that.

A Wrinkle in the Skin shows us the fragility of British society – or at least society in the 1960s – and how quickly people can be reduced to their basest instincts once difficulties arise. There is no Dunkirk spirit here, no “We’re in it together” moments or sacrifice for the greater good as you might expect in, say, a John Wyndham version of the story. Instead it is a ferocious description of the survival of the strongest, something which the author does not shy away from. Even 55 years after its publication, the book can shock. When it was first published it must have been even more so.

In short, the book is an interesting and perhaps more realistic take than many novels on the consequences of global disaster. It is a story of a more innocent and less sophisticated time, but simultaneously a reminder that people survive with resilience and endurance, not long having experienced the horrors of the Blitz, Dresden and Auschwitz. It is at times harsh and brutal, and a product of its time, but still manages to engage, even if it is a case of what would have happened fifty-odd years ago.

Like most of the Christopher novels I have read, this one engages and keeps those pages turning, but also doesn’t flinch from describing brutality and horror. A Wrinkle in the Skin is a sobering reminder that global catastrophe, whatever we may think, is not a recent phenomenon. It made me feel lucky for the things I have and the relationships I’ve got, even in these difficult times, and for that alone it was worth a read.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ragged Edge is a book about letting go. It is a message about personal growth wrapped in a big metaphor of global catastrophe and a civilization trying to rebuild after it has literal crumbled. So it is ironic that by reading it I have tumbled back down into nostalgia for John Christopher, and his books I read as a youth. The book I pulled promptly off my shelf was one by Robert Cormier, another landmark author in my reading history. And both of these books right after a year of pushing myself to discover new and diverse authors.

Right after a recent declaration to a friend that I was finding myself much more able to let go of the past - that COVID has made sharp the futility of our attachments to the past. That was ready to make way for the new, ready to be exposed and changed.

The edge is ragged - and if we are not pushed over it outright, we can waver between our attachments to the past and our yearnings to move forward.

I loved this book. Reading has been tough this fall semester with my return to teaching and the shortness of time and energy. Also the fact that energy and anxiety is high - reading requires a big shift in slowness and focus that quickly comes out of practice. I thought I would give one of John Christopher's adult books a try - I have started many and found them, well, dull and uncompelling.

I thought I would push against that by going in knowing I might be bored, knowing I might have to go slow and force my attentions back to the page. It would be an exercise in restraint - if I found myself distracted/not absorbing words, I'd start over. If I was impatient because I wasn't getting into the story, I would force myself to slow down - to check in with each sentence, each word. Maybe the effort would do what Stephen King is usually so good at doing - force me to relax, slow my breathing, just settle in.

Reading the first chapter went about exactly as I expected (haltingly), but I diligently kept at it, and by about the 3rd chapter I didn't have to try anymore, I was hooked.

The catastrophe in the Ragged Edge is completely absurd. Think "The Core" absurd, or "The Day After Tomorrow" absurd. Massive earthquakes all over the planet cause the ocean surrounding the channel islands to completely disappear. Um, really? (Actually, the Ragged Edge would make a FANTASTIC movie, no joke. It has all the good elements of an earth catastrophe story, and audiences have shown they are willing to tolerate scientific absurdity if the story telling is good, and the storytelling here is very good.)

Matthew is an individualistic bachelor, tending a tomato orchard, living a solitary and satisfied life after a divorce and other traumatic family events haven driven him to self-sufficiency. His one care his grown daughter, away at University. This is our setup - a character who cares little about the rest of the world, and therefore hardly bothered by its sudden absence. But he clings to the memories of his daughter and the chance she may be alive, and plans to walk across the dried ocean to find her.

There is a lot that feels incredibly formulaic about this book - but of course it was published in 1965 - could J.C. have been one of the creators of this formula? There is the boy, Billy, who he helps who develops an unwavering loyalty to Mathew even when Matthew actively tries to be rid of him. There is a growing community with an abusive dictatorial leader who threatens Mathew if he tries to leave, meaning Matthew must sneak out in the night.

There are other pieces that felt familiarly John Christopher. While Billy and Matthew are traveling the come upon a huge ocean liner upright in the sand, unaffected, undamaged. Climbing aboard they are faced with an out of place eeriness - a jarring contrast to the devastated earth. The ship has electricity, is clean and maintained, there is an empty kitchen with fresh bread and food, but it is completely empty of people. This is an anachronism that is classic JC - the ways the future and the past can be flipped on their heads, the out of place futurism in the crumbling world. The ship should not be there. But it is. The ship is not empty, they meet its captain - tending to the ship, eager to help his new company, but not really seeing them. He spends his days cleaning, cooking, talking to characters on a movie screen in the ships theater. He is, of course, mad. We don't know this right away, but of course we know it (see my comment about formulas). Of course he is mad, and of course there will be drama when Matthew and Ben try to leave.

But they are able to leave, and they continue their journey. Throughout the book I experienced mild enjoyment - comfort in familiarity, satisfaction that I was finally able to get myself reading one these books that I had resisted for so long. It was when we met April - Hallelujiah!!! A strong, inspiring female character!! Such characters so absent from his YA books!!!!! - It was when we met her and her community that my enjoyment started to slide down into full-on adoration.






I had written off JC's adult books almost completely. I tried so many and couldn't get into them. This one was amazing and amazingly perfect for now.

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid in the 1960's one of my favorite science fiction writers was British author John Christopher who wrote apocalyptic fiction for teen boys. I was lucky that my school library stocked his Tripods series about an alien takeover of the earth foiled by young boys and a couple of books about civilization destroying plagues and natural disasters.
I ate them up, along with a few other geeky kids in my class, almost exclusively boys and a few girls who were afraid to let the other kids know they were into that sort of thing because it wasn't girly.
There was another John Christopher, an American who wrote sports novels. (Insert disparaging vocal sound of your choice, all fellow nerds.) We are not talking about him. People didn't die in his books.
I had no idea John Christopher was really a man named Sam You'd who wrote in several different genres under different names.
He wrote "A Wrinkle in the Skin" under the John Christopher pseudonym and it is so like the ones he wrote for bright children if I had not known the author I probably could have guessed.
That is all you need to know. If you loved him as a boy, or a geeky science fiction girl reading this will be like old home week.
If you are not one of us it will probably seem dated, misogynistic and confusing.
Two to four stars, depending on your perspective.

[Steve Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another enjoyable slab of post-apocalyptic cosy catastrophe from John Christopher.

Earlier in the year, I read Christopher's The Death of Grass. That was lean, taut, and gripping, with a particular grey bleakness. This book follows a similar pattern -- ordinary people surviving a catastrophe -- but here the catastrophe has a more unlikely cause: worldwide earthquakes that cause severe damage and disruption. Of course, the book was written in the early 1960s, when much less was known about plate tectonics, so colossal earthquakes perhaps had some plausibility.

Ultimately, though, the science is irrelevant, and to place post-apocalyptic novels in the science-fiction genre is perhaps mistaken. Because after the initiating disaster, such books inevitably become about people, about society and human relationships, about what makes state and society.

There is much to fear in the post-apocalytic world -- rape, pillage, murder, illness, death. That much is made plain, and Christopher does not shy away from it. And in a lovely Ballardian moment involving a stranded cargo ship, there is madness and defiance too. In some ways, this is a novel that sits between the apocalyptic niche Ballard carved out in books such as The Drowned World and The Wind from Nowhere and the very British catastrophes of John Wyndham.

The prose is as clean and lean as in The Death of Grass. It has a kind of traditional, British style I associate with Orwell, Greene and Somerset Maugham, a style I find myself favouring at the moment.

This novel is, in the end, less desolate, less gloomy than The Death of Grass. Its conclusion offers some optimism amid the devastation and wildness. There is a kind of hope that, however hard it might be at that moment, in the future a good, just and fair society can be rebuilt.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book dates back to the 60s and some of the language and nuances do show themselves up but considering this books limitations it just goes to show how compelling the storyline is and the imagery used if it can stand the test of time. This book was labelled part of the "cosy catastrophe" the story is intended to be down beat and show the darker sides of human nature. Never intended to be used as a vehicle to horrify its readers the book still has some strong images such as the walk across the channel.
I guess this along with "the death of grass" have a timeless starkness which is still as compelling now as it was then.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Christopher is perhaps best remembered for his Tripods series of books for young adults but also contributed to the British sub-genre of “cosy catatstrophe” most mined by the other John (Wyndham.) A Wrinkle in the Skin falls firmly into the catastrophe category as a series of giant earthquakes befalls the world. (From a modern perspective Christopher’s description of the cause of earthquakes was obviously written before the theory of plate tectonics was fully established.)

Matthew Cotter is a widower living in Guernsey when the earthquakes hit. After living through the ’quakes, his aim is to try to find his daughter who was living somewhere in England before the catastrophe. He first joins a small group of survivors one of whom acts as a kind of petty king intent on keeping the best female to himself to ensure any sons that ensue are recognized as his and regards Cotter (whose relative lack of interest in the opposite sex was established in the short pre-disaster chapter) as his right hand man. It is here perhaps that the sexual attitudes of the time A Wrinkle in the Skin was written (of time immemorial?) are most obvious as a woman who is a willing sexual partner for most of the others is referred to in the text in crudely dismissive terms.

Soon Cotter escapes to strike out on his own but is followed by a pre-pubescent boy whom he had earlier managed to rescue from a damaged building and for whom he now has to take responsibility. The English Channel has disappeared in the vast upheaval and they can walk across the old sea bed. During this sojourn they come upon a more or less intact oil tanker deposited on the new land, inhabited by a captain who has gone slightly mad.

Making it to England they hit upon a group who recognize them as non-threatening and take them in. The group seeks to hide both themselves and their stash from bands of marauders but of course can not always be successful. One such raid takes place when Cotter and many of the others are away from the camp on a food search. They arrive back in time to prevent the attackers from unearthing the food and Cotter uses a shotgun to drive them off, wounded or not. However, he later learns from one of the women of the new accommodation she has had to make to those gangs of men who chance upon her and the contempt in which she holds all men for their appetites. In a lawless, almost hopeless environment I suppose this is the way it would be.

As I recall the author’s The Death of Grass was somewhat similar in its treatment of the post-apocalyptic scenario.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another powerfully told apocalyptic adventure story told by John Christopher, this time it's a rapid and severe bout of geological activity that overnight wipes out most of humanity (as far as we know) and completely destroys every standing structure.

The narrative follows the experience of our protagonist Matthew who's living on the island of Guernsey. He manages to survive the night of violent earthquakes by being out in the garden investigating a strange noise and being protected by the strong yet flexible bamboo stalks. We then follow his discoveries as he learns that most of his fellow islanders are not so lucky and were crushed in their own homes. Not only that but the channel seems to have disappeared. The handful of survivors soon try to start setting up a camp with a view to longer term survival but Matthew's heart lies elsewhere, with his daughter who was living in Surrey. Against the odds, he sets out on a quest to find out if she's still alive.

As much as a journey to find his daughter, it is also a journey towards coming to terms with the world as it is, and also coming to terms with himself. There are also quite a few meditations on the effects of sudden civilization loss on the survivors in terms of what sort of behaviour they resort to. How many will attempt to rebuild a stable life and hold on to society's morals instead of merely running around in packs, raping and pillaging those weaker than themselves?

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the premise--civilization after crazy earthquakes--was promising. I wasn't sure what I would get, given that it was written back in the 60s; sometimes you have to slog through a lot of racism and sexism of the time. But those aspects were remarkably mild, and overall I thought this book was a total gem! I enjoyed the pacing, the characters, the writing style. The descriptions of the long night through the earthquakes was both realistic and surreal. When Matthew reached the shore and saw that the ocean had disappeared, my heart almost stopped! And then, when he found the ocean had flooded Sussex--and drowned his daughter--wow. Devastating.

The core of this story is really about facing reality. It takes young Billy almost dying on his trek to find Matthew's daughter for him to snap out of his fantasies for the future. In fact, Matthew almost reverts back to his fantasy world before finally bringing Billy back to the island he knows is fairly stable compared to the mainland. If he had tried to track down Alice and the others in the mountains (following the fantasy), he would never have found them--because they ended up heading out across the ocean floor to the islands he had told them were safe.

[Ashutosh Sahu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this last of the 3 JC (famous) dystopians: Empty World and The Death of Grass being the other two. Reading all 3 really made the experience complete, I saw the variations in the theme and the thought experiments the author was doing.

This one in a nice middle ground between EW and Grass. (minor spoilers)

The main character's story progresses in an up-and-down way that makes this story far more uplifting than Grass. Humanity has some hope for the future, unlike EW, where even though the story ends on an upbeat note, my conclusion was that with only 5 survivors that we knew about in the London area (including crazy Clive and the guy who suicided), there wouldn't be enough people left to continue the species.

I think this might be JC's deepest commentary on the idea of 'family' in the Dystopia. The main character's motivation is finding his daughter, who is overwhelmingly likely to be dead. He begins to take care of a small boy he rescued, but basically risks his life on a crazy journey... and only at the end, when he gets proof of his daughter's death, does he realize he thinks of the boy as his son. The message seems to be that in these situations, the good people will expand their view of family to be something bigger than blood relations.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has aged well, which says a lot for the author... but then, John Christopher writes good books, especially about the apocalypse. Apparently he's been called the world's greatest serial killer because he's destroyed so many versions of Earth.
It all begins with an earthquake which turns out not to be as simple as things initially appear... if it's possible to be so offhand about a local disaster. I once read that whilst we tend to think about the end of the world as THE big thing, the reality is that for every community that is virtually destroyed, no matter how small, it IS the end of the world.
Our hero survives (no spoiler there) and so the story unfolds as he sets out, initially, to see what the damage is and how he can help... It's going to be a long, long walk.
Very well written and very modern in many ways. Well worth reading.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Globe-girdling earthquakes (too polite and modest a term for the earth changes John Christopher describes herein) wipe out the old human civilization. A new age dawns, born in blood and filth. Those who work cooperatively fare no better than the gangs of 'yobboes' who rape, beat, kill and generally pursue marauding as a way to engage in what Marx called primary accumulation.

It's a fierce, economical, excellent novel, more bitter than bittersweet, more cold than cozy. There's at least a thousand years of night ahead of these characters and their descendants.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another apocalypse science fiction book. I read two books of this genre in January 2009 (Happy New Year). The other one was "Alas, Babylon." I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed both of these books. This book made me want to be a better walker.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

this could've been good, if the main character didn't have his head shoved so far up his ass. nothing can compare to The Stand, for my money.

[Rog the Jammy Dodge · Rating 3 out of 5]

If ever a post-apocalyptic dystopia was to manifest itself (let's face with it, with growing proliferation of nuclear capability controlled by nutters, decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics and climate change accelerating in the face of continued denial at the highest levels) then as sure as eggs is eggs (and there is no denying that), every scumbag, maggot and cheap lousy faggot (may your God bless you Shane) will come out from under their rock and make what's left of our world and life...a complete misery.

Dealing with the few humans left alive after a series of massive earthquakes hit the Channel Islands and southern England is one of the main themes of this post apocalyptic tale. We do not get to know the full extent of the quakes, only that no help has come from outside the immediate environs of the story, so it must affect much of Europe and possibly well beyond. This is the second of the dystopian novels lent to me by a friend, the first being Long Voyage Back.

Our hero Matthew is living on Guernsey alone, quite content, contained and self-sufficient. His wife has died and his only love is a precious daughter who has gone to college in England. After the quake, the land has lifted and the sea retreated and he resolves to traverse the old sea bed and seek out his daughter. The author's vision is bleak but effective, virtually all buildings raised to the ground and the ground itself reshaped. We meet only a dozen survivors on Guernsey and their sole endeavour is to scavenge tins of food and rig up shelter. All are in degrees of shock and their focus madness or short term survival. Even in this small group, there is room for an arse of a self appointed 'leader' who is arrogant, controlling, a bully and a hypocrite...his redeeming feature is that he appreciates that they need to organise and at some point think longer term as to how to survive. Oh, and the only entertainment appears to be most of the men having sex with the slut of the group.

Matthew had rescued a small boy from the rubble who has become rather attached to him. They venture off together on his improbable quest to find his daughter, walking to England. Their struggles take up the rest of the novel but it is the live people they find amongst the dead vast majority that provide the greatest horror. They do find a small group of their ilk who they temporarily stay with but the majority are depicted as gangs of 'yobbos'. This is a strangely anodyne description for these scumbags who are muggers, thieves, torturers, murderers and gang rapists.

The tale is as bleak as it has to be but there is some hope at the end. However, for me it delved a little too deeply and repetitively into the mundane and everyday battle to survive and there was rarely an acceleration of pace, fear or shock into the story to make it a real page turner. The sense of danger must have been everywhere but it never really came over. Maybe our hero Matthew is far too contained and this pervades the story. Good but not great and once again I am going to have to talk up how much I enjoyed the book to my dystopian friend!

[Baldurian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un terremoto devastante colpisce l'Europa (o forse il mondo) e un padre si mette alla ricerca della figlia dispersa in un mondo postapocalittico.
Premessa classica ma svolgimento eccellente; Una ruga sulla Terra non brilla certo per inventiva, ma il resoconto crudo dei giorni dopo il disastro e un cast di personaggi molto realistico rende la storia molto accattivante.
Un romanzo invecchiato molto bene che non ha paura di trattare tematiche come la pazzia, lo stupro e la precarietà della civiltà umana in maniera sorprendentemente moderna. Sessant'anni e non sentirli.

[TonyR · Rating 4 out of 5]

A post-apocalypse novel with a twist - earthquakes damage the land and all that is left is a small fraction of the population reverting to type. A small party travelling over the English Channel drained of water into an England left to the occasional bullying hoards.

Nice to read well written English - when did you last have the word riven in a sentence ?

Some unusual descriptions of some types of people that have fallen away from common usage.

[Tex-49 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante per il dubbio: in caso di distruzione quasi totale, i superstiti sapranno mantenere la propria civiltà o si ritornerà alla legge del più forte?

[zilver · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 | generally prefer my dystopias a little less bleak. but it could’ve been bleaker! that has to be said

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of unprecedented earthquakes wreaks havoc across the globe, laying waste to Western Europe and leaving protagonist Matthew Cotter as one of the few survivors on the island of Guernsey, having fortuitously been outside in the middle of the night when the quake collapsed most structures. The earthquake has dramatically changed the landscape and drained the English Channel, and Matthew eventually resolves to trek north across the dry seabed to try to find his daughter in England.

It’s an original conceit for an apocalyptic novel, but unfortunately suffers from being written by somebody who had perhaps at this point in his career written too many of them. Literally the first day after the disaster, Matthew has accepted that this is truly the end of civilisation and is speculating about how things will unfold for the survivors not just in the days and weeks ahead, but the years and generations; I’m sure a writer of post-apocalyptic fiction would do that, but probably not a Guernsey horticulturalist. It’s also only a few days before the dozen other Guernsey survivors are descending into caveman rule, asserting which men “own” which women and so on, and when Matthew gets to the mainland he finds it’s collapsed into brutal anarchy with survivors killing and raping and plundering with abandon, when there’s not even any real scarcity or competition for resources yet. (The vast majority of people are dead; tinned food lies in every ruin for the taking.) This is in stark contrast to Christopher’s earlier novel The Death of Grass, which illustrates how civility and peacefulness can crumble quite quickly when there are suddenly too many mouths and not enough food, i.e. when there is a material reason for them to do so. In A Wrinkle in the Skin it just seems silly.

The Death of Grass is also the superior novel for demonstrating, unlike much post-apocalyptic fiction, that most people would be quite willing to hurt others to save themselves and their children; it does so by having the main characters violently attack and kill an innocent family to take their food, flipping the usual cliche of “good people” and “bad people” that you see even in acclaimed post-apocalyptic fiction like The Road. A Wrinkle in the Skin, on the other hand, hews more closely to Christopher’s curiously English outlook I identified in The World in Winter: his conceit (laid out here explicitly, at one point) that in the event of a disaster like this, the middle class would be a steady, civilised hand on the tiller while the working class, if left to themselves, would descend into a violent, anarchic rabble, referred to here as “oiks” or “yobbos.”

It’s a fairly offensive stance, though difficult to tell how much of it is subconscious and how much Christopher would have held to it if anybody had ever challenged him on it. Maybe it was also present in his better novels like The Death of Grass, and I unwittingly passed over it; I read them when I was much younger and before I’d lived in England and realised how pervasive their class structure is even in the 21st century, let alone Christopher’s day. I don’t have any illusions about whether peaceful civilisation could endure an event like this, but I don’t believe that it would disintegrate that quickly, and I certainly don’t believe it would fragment along class lines – that’s a ridiculous English fantasy. (And this is all without touching on the book’s sexism which at times becomes outright misogyny, puzzlingly uncharacteristic of Christopher.)

It’s still a decent book for all that. I try not to judge writers too harshly for being a product of their age, and it really only stuck out here for me because it’s by far the most explicit presentation of Christopher’s class prejudice I’ve yet read. There are some great set-pieces, particularly the trek across the dried-out seabed of the English Channel, and the half-mad Greek captain living in his luxurious beached tanker. There’s an interesting dynamic that develops between Matthew and the young boy he rescues and takes under his wing, with the former feeling a constant guilt for endangering the kid by dragging him across England looking for his own daughter. A Wrinkle in the Skin is a good read; just take Christopher’s prognostications about how the post-apocalyptic chips might fall with a pinch of salt.

[Jim Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love post apocalyptic novels and have read many of them. This is one of the better novels in the category. As I was about to finish the book I thought how tragic that the best books end too quickly. The characters are smart realistic people, thinking and doing as you might expect in their situation. The mechanism by which the world ends in this novel, is an interesting one and well crafted. Of course with any good book, the most important part is characters that you care about. I was rooting for our protagonist like you wouldn't believe, and many of the secondary characters as well. I am not sure why I took so long to discover John Christopher but I will be moving on to his other adult novels. Before "A Wrinkle in the Skin" I finished another post apocalyptic novel, "The Anvil". One book was published in 1965 and the other in 2021. One book sucked tremendously and the other was brilliant. The idea in the crap book actually had more potential for an interesting story but poor writing and cringe worthy dialogue ruined everything. I highly recommend "A Wrinkle in the Skin" for anyone who loves the post apocalyptic genre or for anyone who just loves a good tale with people you care about.

[MBenzz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well! That was a depressingly good romp through the apocalypse!

I'm not sure when this book takes place, but I think it's around 1965 when it was first published. Matthew, the main character, lives on the Isle of Guernsey, just off the coast of France in the English channel. A series of earthquakes completely devastates the landscape and kills millions of people. He, along with Billy, an 11-year-old boy whom he rescues, journey out along the now barren seafloor to England in search of Matthews daughter Jane.

This book was wonderful. Very descriptive without being over-the-top, and you really feel the struggle that each character faces. There were some scenes of violence, but they were muted. Violence among the survivors is not the main focus here. Sure, it exists, and the author brings it to light, but this is more about one man and child making their way through their new environment, and figuring out what the future will look like for them.

If you're into street-gangs and apocalyptic fighting, then this is not the book for you.

Anyway, I absolutely recommend this book! I don't know why I waited so long to read it, but I'm glad I finally did!

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting non-nuclear post-apocalyptic novel. The novel is very linear (no flashbacks or postmodern elements), given that it was published in 1965. This didn't really detract from the novel, as the pace was quick and there wasn't too much description. The novel also had a strong female character at once point, which was nice to see in a novel from the 60s, and the novel provided instances of both awful people and kind ones which was also realistic. Most of the staples of post-apocalyptic wanderers were seen: religious fanatics, raiders, an insane person living in denial, and groups of people trying to settle down somewhere. No cannibals, though I'm guessing they'd show up eventually. The main plot made sense - Matthew just had to know what happened to his daughter; I get that - as I did most of his decisions.

Overall, a solid story.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some time ago I read another of JC's novels, The Death of Grass, which I enjoyed, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Like The Death of Grass, it's a sort of post apocalyptic road trip. However, instead of all the crops dying, the disaster is caused by massive worldwide earthquakes.

At over 40 years old, A Wrinkle in the Skin is obviously a little dated, but JC doesn't shy away from the nastier side of things - although they are not described as graphically as they might be today. The reader tags along with Matthew, as he searches for other survivors. Along the way, he learns about himself and what is important to him.

A wrinkle in the skin is an enjoyable and easily readable novel; thoughtful in places and a little dated, but plenty there for the post apocalyptic fan.