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The World in Winter
Penguin reissues a classic work of science fiction from the author of The Death of Grass - now with a new introduction by Hari Kunzru
One year the UK suffers a terribly harsh winter: rivers freeze solid, food and fuel run low, the whole of Europe lies under snow. Months pass and the arctic weather remains. It gradually becomes clear that the world's climate has changed permanently and humanity must adapt to survive in the brutal new conditions.
As the northern hemisphere nations fall into chaos and barbarism, with packs of men roaming like wolves through the frozen wastelands, citizens flee south to Africa and South America. Journalist Andrew Leedon is one of the lucky ones who escaped in time - swapping London for the white refugee slums of habitable Nigeria. Horrified by conditions and determined to act, Leedon makes a desperate plan to return and reclaim the dangerous wilderness of his abandoned country...
The World in Winter is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series
One year the UK suffers a terribly harsh winter: rivers freeze solid, food and fuel run low, the whole of Europe lies under snow. Months pass and the arctic weather remains. It gradually becomes clear that the world's climate has changed permanently and humanity must adapt to survive in the brutal new conditions.
As the northern hemisphere nations fall into chaos and barbarism, with packs of men roaming like wolves through the frozen wastelands, citizens flee south to Africa and South America. Journalist Andrew Leedon is one of the lucky ones who escaped in time - swapping London for the white refugee slums of habitable Nigeria. Horrified by conditions and determined to act, Leedon makes a desperate plan to return and reclaim the dangerous wilderness of his abandoned country...
The World in Winter is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
22 people are currently reading
589 people want to read
About the author
John Christopher
204 books548 followersSamuel 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.’
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.’
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
November 14, 2016
After I read The Death of Grass six years ago I was blown away. But I didn't go on to read anything else by him; there didn't seem to be much else still in print. But when browsing the local bookshop the other day, my eye was was caught by the striking covers on the Penguin Worlds series which included a reprint of "The World in Winter". I had to pick it up.
This is another piece of apocalyptic fiction where we witness the collapse of society, this time because of a reduction in energy coming from the sun triggering another ice age. But the story does not merely tread the same ground as The Death of Grass. It did touch on the fragility of civilisation and how quickly it can all come tumbling down as well as exploring how, just as quickly, all our moral standards are forced to change. But there was a definite shift in focus here as the author explores how such a catastrophe might affect the relationship between the 1st and 3rd world and how there might be a reverse in fortunes, effectively exchanging places.
As northern Europe and America are plunged into perpetual winter they quickly collapse into barbarity. The African (and other) countries quickly rise in prominence. Those Europeans lucky enough to escape south find out what it is like to be refugees with next to nothing, facing discrimination and exploitation. Will the African nations become the colonisers, the remnants of the north the savages?
The shifting relationships between the protagonist, his wife, his friend and friend's wife is also a central focus of the book. He has to deal with upheaval in both his personal life as well as his place in the world at large.
There were perhaps one or two flaws. The pace at which the new ice age descended I find hard to credit. There is also perhaps a lack of detail explaining how it happened and its wider effect on the world outside of the immediate experience of the protagonist. But these are minor criticisms of an otherwise outstanding book that is can still teach us a thing or two around fifty years after it was first published.
This is another piece of apocalyptic fiction where we witness the collapse of society, this time because of a reduction in energy coming from the sun triggering another ice age. But the story does not merely tread the same ground as The Death of Grass. It did touch on the fragility of civilisation and how quickly it can all come tumbling down as well as exploring how, just as quickly, all our moral standards are forced to change. But there was a definite shift in focus here as the author explores how such a catastrophe might affect the relationship between the 1st and 3rd world and how there might be a reverse in fortunes, effectively exchanging places.
As northern Europe and America are plunged into perpetual winter they quickly collapse into barbarity. The African (and other) countries quickly rise in prominence. Those Europeans lucky enough to escape south find out what it is like to be refugees with next to nothing, facing discrimination and exploitation. Will the African nations become the colonisers, the remnants of the north the savages?
The shifting relationships between the protagonist, his wife, his friend and friend's wife is also a central focus of the book. He has to deal with upheaval in both his personal life as well as his place in the world at large.
There were perhaps one or two flaws. The pace at which the new ice age descended I find hard to credit. There is also perhaps a lack of detail explaining how it happened and its wider effect on the world outside of the immediate experience of the protagonist. But these are minor criticisms of an otherwise outstanding book that is can still teach us a thing or two around fifty years after it was first published.
January 21, 2011
Not what I was expecting. Instead of an exploration of post apocalyptic England devoured by ice, we see a British couple try to make their way in Africa after the extreme weather hits home. The British pound has zero value after the country is devastated and the new immigrants from the north find themselves treated with the same condescending and racist manner from their African hosts that they had once applied to their former colonial citizens. This is Great stuff that's way ahead of its time for schlocky doomsday sci-fi from the sixties. There's also a pretty heavy love trianglish thing going on with plenty of shrewd psychological delving. Then there are the action scenes. Christopher usually handles action quite well, but it feels like he was uninterested in putting effort into these action scenes. The last quarter of the novel takes place on hovercrafts. Hovercrafts.
May 12, 2018
This is a difficult book for me to review, not only because it is a disturbing story but I also can't decide if it is prescient or whatever the opposite of that would be.
The story of how the world reacts to a new Ice Age starting is very reminiscent of the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow except that it is British and was written 30 years before the film came out. There is one scene where American refugees break down the border fence to get into Mexico that was very similar to scenes in the book, except that it was played for a cheap laugh and this book is anything but funny.
In many ways the book is a reflection on our difficult colonial history and it's legacy and continued effects on many countries. Africa in particular still struggles with that legacy, which is appropriate to the book given that Nigeria is a major setting for the mid part of the section. Our British history of racism with our former colonies is played out in reverse in this section, and I can't help feeling that our protagonists rather get what they deserve in this part, even if they never directly caused any of the issues played out in the book. Africa, the "dark continent" was colonised in part because of the deluded notion of white superiority and the need to "save" the poor black people from themselves.
While this middle section is successful in making us feel uncomfortable, is it sandwiched between two parts that that don't work as well. The first part sets up the love triangle between our three main characters and provides the background to the oncoming Ice Age, but it is a studied piece that turns out to be pretty dull if you are not into looking at the lives of white upper middle class people.
The final part go all in for action as the Nigerian Government decides to mount an expedition to the now frozen UK, using a squadron of hovercraft that have fallen into their hands. This makes a kind of bizarre sense given the terrain the expedition needed to traverse, but is mainly in the book because hovercraft were a big thing in the 60s, which is the era in which the book was written. There is a brief stop-off on the island of Guernsey which seeks to highlight the kind of racism that the expedition is likely to face in London, which is their final destination.
The ending was somewhat disappointing because it was depressingly predictable what would happen when a white man who has lost everything finds a way to come home and regain his lost status. In the end, our main protagonist may have learned something about how others have to live, but it doesn't look as if he is going to put that lesson into practice and try to make a better world with it.
All told, this is an interesting book to read but tends to fall back on racial cliches a little bit too much to make it a more relevant one to today's issues with race and the nature of society.
The story of how the world reacts to a new Ice Age starting is very reminiscent of the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow except that it is British and was written 30 years before the film came out. There is one scene where American refugees break down the border fence to get into Mexico that was very similar to scenes in the book, except that it was played for a cheap laugh and this book is anything but funny.
In many ways the book is a reflection on our difficult colonial history and it's legacy and continued effects on many countries. Africa in particular still struggles with that legacy, which is appropriate to the book given that Nigeria is a major setting for the mid part of the section. Our British history of racism with our former colonies is played out in reverse in this section, and I can't help feeling that our protagonists rather get what they deserve in this part, even if they never directly caused any of the issues played out in the book. Africa, the "dark continent" was colonised in part because of the deluded notion of white superiority and the need to "save" the poor black people from themselves.
While this middle section is successful in making us feel uncomfortable, is it sandwiched between two parts that that don't work as well. The first part sets up the love triangle between our three main characters and provides the background to the oncoming Ice Age, but it is a studied piece that turns out to be pretty dull if you are not into looking at the lives of white upper middle class people.
The final part go all in for action as the Nigerian Government decides to mount an expedition to the now frozen UK, using a squadron of hovercraft that have fallen into their hands. This makes a kind of bizarre sense given the terrain the expedition needed to traverse, but is mainly in the book because hovercraft were a big thing in the 60s, which is the era in which the book was written. There is a brief stop-off on the island of Guernsey which seeks to highlight the kind of racism that the expedition is likely to face in London, which is their final destination.
The ending was somewhat disappointing because it was depressingly predictable what would happen when a white man who has lost everything finds a way to come home and regain his lost status. In the end, our main protagonist may have learned something about how others have to live, but it doesn't look as if he is going to put that lesson into practice and try to make a better world with it.
All told, this is an interesting book to read but tends to fall back on racial cliches a little bit too much to make it a more relevant one to today's issues with race and the nature of society.
May 1, 2022
I'm tossing and turning on this one. To be clear: I did like it, I thought there was a lot of "food for thought" and the novel, as a whole, was very interesting.
I feel that in better hands, some such as Ray Bradbury's, for example, this book would have been a more well-known and lasting classic of science fiction today. The premise is fantastic: a global climate crisis due to reduced radiation from the sun causes some of the most powerful countries, including the UK, to experience a renewed ice age, propelling them into a dystopian catastrophe, and prompting most people to clamour to immigrate to warmer southern regions like Africa. In this world, the power-shift alone is enough for meaningful analysis, and it reveals much about the power structures we are familiar with today and the racist systems that oppress the developing world. There was also one part in particular that was quite haunting: after the new ice age takes a firm hold of the UK, the authorities plan to implement what they call the "London Pale," i.e. a border around central London, blocking out the rest of the city and country. Within this London Pale, the economy is maintained as much as possible, law and order is maintained, whatever food is left is preserved and distributed, and authority figures close ranks. Everyone else (that is, everyone unlucky enough to have lived outside of this small perimeter) is left to anarchy in the freezing cold, while the winter, starvation, and criminal warfare wreak havoc. This plot element is one of the key components of John Christopher's book: it is, essentially, a satire on capitalism, colonialism, and a study on the loss of common humanity (or at least, I interpreted it to be so). In this way, the book was somewhat reminiscent of the 2013 film Snowpiercer, not to mention other classic works of dystopian fiction such as: 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. However, these comparisons are something of a stretch.
The inversion of global power structures is such a rich topic to examine, and I think it is very rewarding to approach it today with a modern lens, overlooking, as much as possible, the outdated terminology Christopher chooses to employ. I think it would have been beneficial to study this in a class; since I focused a lot on studying the setting, and the repercussions and politics of this ice age, I may have missed the opportunity to delve into some of the characters' motivations as well. I was quite absorbed by the book in general. However, in spite of all this, Christopher is too much a product of his time for this to be considered timeless. His women characters are not written very realistically for the most part, racist stereotypes play a huge role in the plot, and some of the language is extremely offensive. Andrew as a main character is very bland, and his relationships always seem thin and weak; yet he is always being accommodated, and people in his life are always willing to do him favours. It's possible that this is intentional: as a white man, he experiences certain privileges among his countrymen, despite having never truly earned that privilege. Or perhaps Christopher specifically wanted Andrew to be an "everyman", so that readers of the 1960's could see themselves in him and sympathize. In any case, he didn't come across to me as particularly endearing and this did not make me invested in much of what happened, besides having a healthy interest in the world-building.
Basically, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I will be revisiting it in the future. I would only recommend this to avid fans of science-fiction, but I suppose it also has something to offer even to the casual reader. The verdict: it was really good, but it was missing something, and it hasn't aged well.
I feel that in better hands, some such as Ray Bradbury's, for example, this book would have been a more well-known and lasting classic of science fiction today. The premise is fantastic: a global climate crisis due to reduced radiation from the sun causes some of the most powerful countries, including the UK, to experience a renewed ice age, propelling them into a dystopian catastrophe, and prompting most people to clamour to immigrate to warmer southern regions like Africa. In this world, the power-shift alone is enough for meaningful analysis, and it reveals much about the power structures we are familiar with today and the racist systems that oppress the developing world. There was also one part in particular that was quite haunting: after the new ice age takes a firm hold of the UK, the authorities plan to implement what they call the "London Pale," i.e. a border around central London, blocking out the rest of the city and country. Within this London Pale, the economy is maintained as much as possible, law and order is maintained, whatever food is left is preserved and distributed, and authority figures close ranks. Everyone else (that is, everyone unlucky enough to have lived outside of this small perimeter) is left to anarchy in the freezing cold, while the winter, starvation, and criminal warfare wreak havoc. This plot element is one of the key components of John Christopher's book: it is, essentially, a satire on capitalism, colonialism, and a study on the loss of common humanity (or at least, I interpreted it to be so). In this way, the book was somewhat reminiscent of the 2013 film Snowpiercer, not to mention other classic works of dystopian fiction such as: 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. However, these comparisons are something of a stretch.
The inversion of global power structures is such a rich topic to examine, and I think it is very rewarding to approach it today with a modern lens, overlooking, as much as possible, the outdated terminology Christopher chooses to employ. I think it would have been beneficial to study this in a class; since I focused a lot on studying the setting, and the repercussions and politics of this ice age, I may have missed the opportunity to delve into some of the characters' motivations as well. I was quite absorbed by the book in general. However, in spite of all this, Christopher is too much a product of his time for this to be considered timeless. His women characters are not written very realistically for the most part, racist stereotypes play a huge role in the plot, and some of the language is extremely offensive. Andrew as a main character is very bland, and his relationships always seem thin and weak; yet he is always being accommodated, and people in his life are always willing to do him favours. It's possible that this is intentional: as a white man, he experiences certain privileges among his countrymen, despite having never truly earned that privilege. Or perhaps Christopher specifically wanted Andrew to be an "everyman", so that readers of the 1960's could see themselves in him and sympathize. In any case, he didn't come across to me as particularly endearing and this did not make me invested in much of what happened, besides having a healthy interest in the world-building.
Basically, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I will be revisiting it in the future. I would only recommend this to avid fans of science-fiction, but I suppose it also has something to offer even to the casual reader. The verdict: it was really good, but it was missing something, and it hasn't aged well.
March 11, 2011
**1/2
Mediocre, myopic post-apocalyptic novel.
Altered solar radiation leads to mini-ice age in northern climates. England becomes arctic. We follow 3 upper middle-class Brits as they flee to Africa. In a nice touch, Christopher has these wealthy Brits becoming the servants and concubines of their formerly colonized Africans.
Too much time is spent on the uninteresting relations of the 4 main characters (upper-class sexual meanderings: dull reading in the 21st century). Not enough (close to zero) world building (as in, how does one survive in the new arctic countries? What happens to everyone? What happens to animal & plant life?).
In the final section, an African expedition on Hovercraft (another nice touch) explores the new frozen London.
I recommend Wyndham’s “ The Day of the Triffids” for the ultimate post-apocalyptic London exploration.
Mediocre, myopic post-apocalyptic novel.
Altered solar radiation leads to mini-ice age in northern climates. England becomes arctic. We follow 3 upper middle-class Brits as they flee to Africa. In a nice touch, Christopher has these wealthy Brits becoming the servants and concubines of their formerly colonized Africans.
Too much time is spent on the uninteresting relations of the 4 main characters (upper-class sexual meanderings: dull reading in the 21st century). Not enough (close to zero) world building (as in, how does one survive in the new arctic countries? What happens to everyone? What happens to animal & plant life?).
In the final section, an African expedition on Hovercraft (another nice touch) explores the new frozen London.
I recommend Wyndham’s “ The Day of the Triffids” for the ultimate post-apocalyptic London exploration.
October 9, 2025
The Long Winter (which was also published many times as The World in Winter) is a good, post-apocalyptic story set in a world plagued by climate change after the sun has gone dim. Civilization and society have broken down, and Christopher makes some poignant observations about colonialism and economics as people try to survive. The book appeared in 1962 and some of it has dated poorly (especially the love-triangle which dominates the first half, and the scientific aspect is a bit sketchy), but it's a pretty good story. John Christopher was a pseudonym of Sam Youd, and his work was embraced more by the literary establishment than by genre fans, especially his YA Tripod trilogy and The Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass.) My copy of this one has a stark and striking cover by Diane and Leo Dillon, but his most famous cover will forever be the Avon edition of The Little People.
October 19, 2023
'Put fire in their hands and they will not be afraid. They will carry their sun with them even here.’
‘The sun brings life,’ he said, ‘not death.’
—Pt 3, 5
In the 1960s it was believed that we were due to a return to a Little Ice Age, an interglacial cooling such as those beginning around 1650, 1770 and 1850, each separated from the next by a warmer interval. Triggers suggested for this cooling included volcanic activity, changes in oceanic circulation, alterations in orbit or the tilt of the earth’s axis, reductions in human populations from war or disease, and cyclical decreases in solar irradiation or insolation.
In The World in Winter (first published in 1962 as The Long Winter) the author plumps for the final explanation as the cause of the so-called Fratellini winter, a rapid and drastic climatic change which sees much of the northern hemisphere above 35° latitude disabled by snow and ice packs in the sea, including Britain where the novel starts.
Here is where we meet Andrew Leedon, a television documentary maker, and through his eyes we view radical changes not only in living conditions but also in geopolitics, society at large and personal relationships. Ultimately where will loyalties lie – if, that is, one manages to survive?
It feels strange to be contemplating a postulated world in winter amidst our current climate crisis with rising temperatures and burning forests, especially when even six decades ago the immanent reality of global warming was well understood; but it suits a novel of many ambiguities for the reader to consider what-ifs in which situations are turned on their heads. What if, for example, a late centre of Empire like Britain were to find roles reversed and former colonies like Nigeria became the destination of economic migrants fleeing a distant island in turmoil? How would those refugees from a moribund country expect to be treated?
Andrew becomes one of those displaced people. His wife Carol has left him for a close though influential friend David; his job in television disappears when blizzards render most power-reliant technologies irrelevant; arriving in Lagos with David’s estranged wife Madeleine his status as a European lacking funds renders him a persona non grata as far as employment and accommodation are concerned.
Will an act of kindness in the past change his and Madeleine’s prospects in Nigeria? And if offered would he welcome a chance to return to the arctic wasteland of his former home to seek something he had lost?
Sharing features seen in John Wyndham’s apocalyptic novels from the 1950s (such as The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes) The World in Winter is part of a genre that writer Brian Aldiss once dismissed as ‘catastrophe cosy’ – that is, they usually featured a lone white hero, almost invariably British, who somehow managed to survive a fairly plausible global catastrophe, despite all the odds, salvaging hope for an improving future by means of sheer guts and intelligence. This novel fits that blueprint, it’s true, but though in this respect it’s a book of its time – as Hari Kunzru’s excellent introduction to this edition points out – it also tackles issues of race and ethnicity with a degree of sensitivity as well as acuity, even if it ends with a sense of division and resignation, reflecting contemporary attitudes.
The narrative is very much focused on a quintet of characters, although we come across a fair few incidental players. Andrew comes across as sympathetic though we may not always like or agree with his actions, and we quite soon sense his friend David – his only British friend? – is not someone in whom to place implicit trust. As for the women in Andrew’s life, Carol and Maddie, they seemed a little opaque to me, and I wasn’t entirely convinced about their sudden abandonments of their men.
It was the Nigerian, Abonitu, who most impressed me: he was principally motivated by honesty, gratitude and friendship, but he was also pragmatic, brave and prone to give certain individuals the benefit of the doubt, not always to his benefit. But he was always aware of a general tendency towards ‘othering’ people of a different ethnicity, culture or skin colour, and doubting their loyalty according to those criteria, especially when, during a Nigerian expedition to ice-bound Britain, Andrew suggests that equatorial Africans might behave as white colonialists did in Africa: “The sun brings life, not death,” Andrew pointedly says, expressing his sublimated fears.
‘Catastrophe cosy’ or not, The World in Winter is an engrossing read with much to say about colonialism, prejudice and loyalty, all set at a period of transition. As well as implicitly referencing the period it was written in – end of Empire, immigration from former colonies – it has continued relevance sixty-plus years on when geopolitical and climatic crises are resulting in population stresses not just in Britain, of course, but around the world.
January 28, 2018
I found this re-release of this SF-novel a few weeks ago, during the sales of an English bookshop in Brussels, Belgium. In other words, were it not priced lower, I probably would not have bought it, or not immediately.
The premise looked interesting: climate-fiction (cli-fi) in vein of e.g. Kim Stanley Robinson and others. See, for example, his Science in the Capital trilogy. Winter is extending its tentacles in northern Europe and America. As hell freezes over, because the sun is giving off less and less heat, entire populations (incl. politicians) are forced to move out of their countries and seek warmer shelter in the south, like Africa and South America. Asia seems to be of no concern in this book, or I must have overlooked it.
Beware: spoilers! I'll just hide the next blocks of text.
I found this book reasonably good. It shows how white supremacy has its version in Africa (and elsewhere). The story follows mainly white people seeking a new future in Africa, which has its own laws, its own culture(s), its own norms and values, ... Some of those agree with western values, others differ, and vice versa. The author should indeed have focused more on how people try to survive in a frozen world, what the consequences are for nature (fauna and flora), and so on. I agree on that point with Jason, who was less positive about the book.
The story also shows - if you read between the lines -, or should show, that the West is not always the best in everything, that our progress, our industries, ... must indeed take more and more care of the environment. We (generally speaking) do not always treat others/immigrants/strangers with sympathy or empathy, for various reasons and influenced by various parameters. Considering the recent refugee crisis, what if the West was indeed suffering from a severe winter (or a very long and hot summer) that would have such an impact, and was to move to warmer (or more temperate) countries? Has this been considered?
Long story short - and I don't even know why I wrote so many words about such a short book -, a story with flaws, but one that does make you think about the environment, immigration (under severe climate or other conditions), and so on.
The premise looked interesting: climate-fiction (cli-fi) in vein of e.g. Kim Stanley Robinson and others. See, for example, his Science in the Capital trilogy. Winter is extending its tentacles in northern Europe and America. As hell freezes over, because the sun is giving off less and less heat, entire populations (incl. politicians) are forced to move out of their countries and seek warmer shelter in the south, like Africa and South America. Asia seems to be of no concern in this book, or I must have overlooked it.
Beware: spoilers! I'll just hide the next blocks of text.
I found this book reasonably good. It shows how white supremacy has its version in Africa (and elsewhere). The story follows mainly white people seeking a new future in Africa, which has its own laws, its own culture(s), its own norms and values, ... Some of those agree with western values, others differ, and vice versa. The author should indeed have focused more on how people try to survive in a frozen world, what the consequences are for nature (fauna and flora), and so on. I agree on that point with Jason, who was less positive about the book.
The story also shows - if you read between the lines -, or should show, that the West is not always the best in everything, that our progress, our industries, ... must indeed take more and more care of the environment. We (generally speaking) do not always treat others/immigrants/strangers with sympathy or empathy, for various reasons and influenced by various parameters. Considering the recent refugee crisis, what if the West was indeed suffering from a severe winter (or a very long and hot summer) that would have such an impact, and was to move to warmer (or more temperate) countries? Has this been considered?
Long story short - and I don't even know why I wrote so many words about such a short book -, a story with flaws, but one that does make you think about the environment, immigration (under severe climate or other conditions), and so on.
March 10, 2023
This is the second John Christopher book I have read and, whilst I prefer the Death of Grass, this is a solid novel.
The World in Winter has a genuinely interesting premise. The collapse of the Northern Hemisphere makes the former colonial states, such as Nigeria and South Africa, the powerhouses of the world (Nigeria is said even to have nuclear bombs). The migration of the Europeans to these societies, and their new social position are a topic worthy of novelisation and of special significance given the period in which this book came out.
Unfortunately the main criticism I have with regards to this book is that Christopher does not lean into it enough. This book could’ve benefited from another 30-40 pages, going in to more detail about the dynamics of the world, in particular the struggles of the Nigerians to chose between revenge for previous colonial atrocities by the white man and between forging a better future free from retribution. Furthermore, I would’ve liked more about the actual collapse of Northern Hemispheric civilisation- Christopher zooms through it as he did in the Death of Grass. It is fair to say that, based on these two books, Christopher lacks some of the sci-fi and apocalyptic bombasity that some of his fellow writers have.
HOWEVER.
This should not be seen as though I am not a fan of this book, because I am. What Christopher is extremely good at, and what makes both this and the Death of Grass great books, is that he manages to make these sci-fi worlds full of real people. Sci-fi is littered with lone explorers or survivors making their way in a tough world but the problem with this approach is that most of the time, it sucks. Christopher manages to turn the end of the world into mini character studies. The characters are not one dimensional, they make real human choices, whether that be for self-preservation, love or sheer desperation. You think no less of anyone because they act in a morally wrong way because the choice they’ve made is *real* and one that you might make under the same circumstances.
Whilst the ending is relatively predictable, in that Andrew meets up with an old acquaintance, it is not guaranteed. The reality of these worlds is that loyalty is a strange concept. They adhere to one strand of loyalty subconsciously but this may not always be acted out in the real world and this is why you are still wondering until the final pages whether the predictable ending will actually pan out.
I’m going to end the review here, acknowledging that much of what I have said is undoubtedly confusing and incoherent. I will end though by saying, these books are short enough to consume casually and I would highly recommend doing so.
4/5*
The World in Winter has a genuinely interesting premise. The collapse of the Northern Hemisphere makes the former colonial states, such as Nigeria and South Africa, the powerhouses of the world (Nigeria is said even to have nuclear bombs). The migration of the Europeans to these societies, and their new social position are a topic worthy of novelisation and of special significance given the period in which this book came out.
Unfortunately the main criticism I have with regards to this book is that Christopher does not lean into it enough. This book could’ve benefited from another 30-40 pages, going in to more detail about the dynamics of the world, in particular the struggles of the Nigerians to chose between revenge for previous colonial atrocities by the white man and between forging a better future free from retribution. Furthermore, I would’ve liked more about the actual collapse of Northern Hemispheric civilisation- Christopher zooms through it as he did in the Death of Grass. It is fair to say that, based on these two books, Christopher lacks some of the sci-fi and apocalyptic bombasity that some of his fellow writers have.
HOWEVER.
This should not be seen as though I am not a fan of this book, because I am. What Christopher is extremely good at, and what makes both this and the Death of Grass great books, is that he manages to make these sci-fi worlds full of real people. Sci-fi is littered with lone explorers or survivors making their way in a tough world but the problem with this approach is that most of the time, it sucks. Christopher manages to turn the end of the world into mini character studies. The characters are not one dimensional, they make real human choices, whether that be for self-preservation, love or sheer desperation. You think no less of anyone because they act in a morally wrong way because the choice they’ve made is *real* and one that you might make under the same circumstances.
Whilst the ending is relatively predictable, in that Andrew meets up with an old acquaintance, it is not guaranteed. The reality of these worlds is that loyalty is a strange concept. They adhere to one strand of loyalty subconsciously but this may not always be acted out in the real world and this is why you are still wondering until the final pages whether the predictable ending will actually pan out.
I’m going to end the review here, acknowledging that much of what I have said is undoubtedly confusing and incoherent. I will end though by saying, these books are short enough to consume casually and I would highly recommend doing so.
4/5*
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2017
An odd one. The first part is a domestic drama, with trivial affairs and betrayals playing out in 1960s London while, in the background, a severe decline in the heat emitted from the sun causes society to incrementally unravel. Part two takes place in Africa, where our protagonist, along with the wronged wife of his friend, flees to take advantage of the hotter climate, but finds himself subjected to the same humiliations and disadvantages that black men suffered in his own country. Part three sees Andrew return to England with the Africans on a fleet of hovercrafts, persuaded to join a reconnaissance mission by the possibility of locating his ex-lover. Remember when hovercrafts were cool? I do, just about.
The domestic drama feels like it takes place over a matter of months, while the apparently concurrent social collapse seems to progress throughout many years: a weird misalignment that it's hard to get over. The social commentary, while well-intentioned, betrays an extremely simplistic and reductive understanding of race relations. And the characterisations are sketchy and fail to convince. I was surprised to discover that John Christopher's The Death of Grass--which I loved--was actually written a few years earlier. While superficially similar to The World in Winter, it is a much more focussed, confident and mature piece of work.
The domestic drama feels like it takes place over a matter of months, while the apparently concurrent social collapse seems to progress throughout many years: a weird misalignment that it's hard to get over. The social commentary, while well-intentioned, betrays an extremely simplistic and reductive understanding of race relations. And the characterisations are sketchy and fail to convince. I was surprised to discover that John Christopher's The Death of Grass--which I loved--was actually written a few years earlier. While superficially similar to The World in Winter, it is a much more focussed, confident and mature piece of work.
July 12, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I was a huge fan of Christopher/Youd's children's fiction when I was young, and it's great to see that his adult novels don't disappoint. While this has dated poorly in a few places - some of the racial attitudes in particular suffer from this, as noted by Hari Kunzru in his introduction - the story doesn't suffer too much from it. The third act in particular is beautifully realised and enthralling from start to finish - if anything, I'd have hoped for more of that. A rediscovered gem nonetheless.
May 15, 2016
Good, solid SF about climate change taking us to the new Ice Age. Africa becomes the desired place to live but Africans are not prepared to be prey again. Racism is explored in an interesting way when European whites become the minority servant class and are treated much the way they'd treated blacks in the past. This is the first book I've read by Christopher but not the last.
December 15, 2014
Essentially The Death of Grass but with snow instead of a disease that kills grass. The whole thing reads like the worst nightmare from the world of The Daily Mail, white people subservient to black people?! Swingers?! Shock after shock just keeps on coming for the upper middle class softies.
July 5, 2018
John Christopher, as always, is great for an engaging sci-fi potboiler you burn through in a couple of days. This one’s an apocalyptic story about a calamitous weather event causing a new ice age which renders the northern latitudes inhospitable, similar to the film The Day After Tomorrow, and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s also Christopher’s most nakedly political book, but discussing that will involve spoiling the entire plot, so duck out now if you want to read it.
Scene: London in the early 1960s. Men are men and women are women, and the first act of The World in Winter, while briefly mentioning the news stories about the sun’s radiation dipping, is mostly about the emotionally cold protagonist Andrew, his new friend David, and the love quadrangle that emerges between themselves and their trophy wives Carol and Madeleine: scotch and soda, sitting rooms, suspenders, it’s all very quaint in a Mad Men sort of way, with an emotionally stiff British slant. As the scale of the crisis becomes clear and the British government introduces rationing, David (a senior civil servant) urges the others to emigrate to tropical climes, where he will eventually follow. When the situation worsens, with a military cordon around a snowbound central London and the temperatures steadily dropping, they follow this advice, and the second act follows Andrew, Carol and Madeleine as refugees in Nigeria – the British pound worthless, European migrants lucky if they can get basic labouring jobs, Andrew and Madeleine reduced to living in a slum. The third act follows Andrew after the new normal has set in and he joins a Nigerian hovercraft expedition which is probing back into England for a possible re-colonisation effort, attempting to beat the other African states in a sort of Scramble for Europe. (Yes, hovercrafts. Britain thought they were going to be the Next Big Thing in the 1960s; my only memory of old-school Doctor Who is Tom Baker engaging in a risible hovercraft chase.)
Now, there are plenty of people who consider this a racist book and I can understand why. But I think it’s important to separate product-of-its-time racism (i.e. words like Negress) from a fundamentally racist worldview or assertion. This is, after all, speculative fiction. So what is Christopher speculating, beyond the catastrophic events of a new ice age? It’s obviously a thought experiment in turning the tables, in asking a white reader how they would feel if they were a penniless refugee in a country that resents their presence (even more topical, these days) but also in ultimately asking how a weak and impoverished Britain would feel if the shoe were on the other foot and it was Nigeria colonising London under the guise of aid and charity.
The answer to both of those, of course, is obvious. But it’s the stuff between the cracks that makes it more interesting, and while reading this in the 21st century you’re constantly waiting for the shoe to drop – for Christopher to say something terribly racist or portray Nigerians as hopeless buffoons. He does brush up against this at times, though nothing depicted as negative (Nigeria having a bribery-riddled culture, an undisciplined civil service or a society rife with tribal affiliations) is presented as something inherent to the race. There was something I couldn’t really put my finger on, though. I did think for a moment near the end of the book that he’d finally showed his hand:
Abonitu turned to look at him. “A black man. Some years ago, in your Parliament, one of your leaders said that all Africans are liars.” But for Epimenedes’ paradox, I would say that also. Abonitu, an African, says that all Africans are liars. There is no paradox, really, of course. To be a liar is not to lie with every word one speaks. And we are murderers, too, and cheats and tyrants. Some of the time.”
On the face of it this seems outright racist, and no less so for Christopher putting the words into the mouth of a well-educated Nigerian character. But this segment comes directly after the expedition has just escaped frozen Guernsey, which has been turned into a petty little kingdom ruled over by a violent, ruthless white man. Neither Christopher the author nor Abonitu the character believes that white men are not also capable of being liars, murderers, cheats and tyrants. This may be a sci-fi potboiler but you still need to read between the lines.
It was during those last few chapters, after the encounter on Guernsey when Abonitu takes control of the shambolic expeditionary force, that it clicked for me. I looked back at a book in which the brutish lout who now rules Guernsey turns out to have been the groundskeeper, tormenting his former employer and governor, a decent chap who’s known simply as ‘the Colonel;’ in which a Nigerian princess is extremely kind and helpful to Andrew and Madeleine, while a lowly bank clerk savours their misfortune; in which the two white British members of the hovercraft expedition are portrayed as rough drunkards with working class accents (“hope you can flogging well swim, china”); in which a British Army captain with only a “slight” Yorkshire accent does his unpleasant but professional duty in tear-gassing the East End oiks who attempt to mob his patrol while he protects those lucky souls behind the barrier in central London; in which Andrew fits quite comfortably into Nigerian society after he luckily secures a well-paid job and gets a penthouse with paid staff.
So, like most Englishmen of his generation, Christopher’s chief subconscious prejudice isn’t race: it’s class. Even at the end of the book, when Andrew ultimately chooses to stay in London and help ward off African colonisation attempts – after he has clubbed Abonitu on the back of the head and taken him prisoner – he and Abonitu still speak to each other cordially and cheerfully as though they’re on the playing fields of Eton in the months before World War I. It’s all very fundamentally 20th century British in a Wyndhamesque sort of way.
And like the works of John Wyndham, The World in Winter both an interesting book and a very entertaining one; dated but still immensely readable. I think I polished this book off in two sittings. I really need to track down the rest of his back catalogue.
Scene: London in the early 1960s. Men are men and women are women, and the first act of The World in Winter, while briefly mentioning the news stories about the sun’s radiation dipping, is mostly about the emotionally cold protagonist Andrew, his new friend David, and the love quadrangle that emerges between themselves and their trophy wives Carol and Madeleine: scotch and soda, sitting rooms, suspenders, it’s all very quaint in a Mad Men sort of way, with an emotionally stiff British slant. As the scale of the crisis becomes clear and the British government introduces rationing, David (a senior civil servant) urges the others to emigrate to tropical climes, where he will eventually follow. When the situation worsens, with a military cordon around a snowbound central London and the temperatures steadily dropping, they follow this advice, and the second act follows Andrew, Carol and Madeleine as refugees in Nigeria – the British pound worthless, European migrants lucky if they can get basic labouring jobs, Andrew and Madeleine reduced to living in a slum. The third act follows Andrew after the new normal has set in and he joins a Nigerian hovercraft expedition which is probing back into England for a possible re-colonisation effort, attempting to beat the other African states in a sort of Scramble for Europe. (Yes, hovercrafts. Britain thought they were going to be the Next Big Thing in the 1960s; my only memory of old-school Doctor Who is Tom Baker engaging in a risible hovercraft chase.)
Now, there are plenty of people who consider this a racist book and I can understand why. But I think it’s important to separate product-of-its-time racism (i.e. words like Negress) from a fundamentally racist worldview or assertion. This is, after all, speculative fiction. So what is Christopher speculating, beyond the catastrophic events of a new ice age? It’s obviously a thought experiment in turning the tables, in asking a white reader how they would feel if they were a penniless refugee in a country that resents their presence (even more topical, these days) but also in ultimately asking how a weak and impoverished Britain would feel if the shoe were on the other foot and it was Nigeria colonising London under the guise of aid and charity.
The answer to both of those, of course, is obvious. But it’s the stuff between the cracks that makes it more interesting, and while reading this in the 21st century you’re constantly waiting for the shoe to drop – for Christopher to say something terribly racist or portray Nigerians as hopeless buffoons. He does brush up against this at times, though nothing depicted as negative (Nigeria having a bribery-riddled culture, an undisciplined civil service or a society rife with tribal affiliations) is presented as something inherent to the race. There was something I couldn’t really put my finger on, though. I did think for a moment near the end of the book that he’d finally showed his hand:
Abonitu turned to look at him. “A black man. Some years ago, in your Parliament, one of your leaders said that all Africans are liars.” But for Epimenedes’ paradox, I would say that also. Abonitu, an African, says that all Africans are liars. There is no paradox, really, of course. To be a liar is not to lie with every word one speaks. And we are murderers, too, and cheats and tyrants. Some of the time.”
On the face of it this seems outright racist, and no less so for Christopher putting the words into the mouth of a well-educated Nigerian character. But this segment comes directly after the expedition has just escaped frozen Guernsey, which has been turned into a petty little kingdom ruled over by a violent, ruthless white man. Neither Christopher the author nor Abonitu the character believes that white men are not also capable of being liars, murderers, cheats and tyrants. This may be a sci-fi potboiler but you still need to read between the lines.
It was during those last few chapters, after the encounter on Guernsey when Abonitu takes control of the shambolic expeditionary force, that it clicked for me. I looked back at a book in which the brutish lout who now rules Guernsey turns out to have been the groundskeeper, tormenting his former employer and governor, a decent chap who’s known simply as ‘the Colonel;’ in which a Nigerian princess is extremely kind and helpful to Andrew and Madeleine, while a lowly bank clerk savours their misfortune; in which the two white British members of the hovercraft expedition are portrayed as rough drunkards with working class accents (“hope you can flogging well swim, china”); in which a British Army captain with only a “slight” Yorkshire accent does his unpleasant but professional duty in tear-gassing the East End oiks who attempt to mob his patrol while he protects those lucky souls behind the barrier in central London; in which Andrew fits quite comfortably into Nigerian society after he luckily secures a well-paid job and gets a penthouse with paid staff.
So, like most Englishmen of his generation, Christopher’s chief subconscious prejudice isn’t race: it’s class. Even at the end of the book, when Andrew ultimately chooses to stay in London and help ward off African colonisation attempts – after he has clubbed Abonitu on the back of the head and taken him prisoner – he and Abonitu still speak to each other cordially and cheerfully as though they’re on the playing fields of Eton in the months before World War I. It’s all very fundamentally 20th century British in a Wyndhamesque sort of way.
And like the works of John Wyndham, The World in Winter both an interesting book and a very entertaining one; dated but still immensely readable. I think I polished this book off in two sittings. I really need to track down the rest of his back catalogue.
December 16, 2022
I read this book for a climate fiction book club. The book fits, as a climate crisis drives the plot - but here it's global cooling, rather than warming. The sun's output declines, which swiftly (too quickly) throws much of Europe into a new ice age.
The story focuses on four British characters, two couples, as our point of view. Two men are well off, a tv producer and a government official. Their wives stay at home (recall the novel's from the early 1960s). During the first third we follow their reactions to the building crisis, leading to decisions to flee the UK for warmer Nigeria. The central section sees those three trying to survive as refugees. In the final chapters one character flees back to England, while another looks for her by riding along with a Nigerian expedition.
I'm very fond of John Christopher, starting with loving his Tripods trilogy when I was a kid, but this is a fairly weak effort, all things considered. The catastrophic idea is gripping, yet not too well fleshed out. There aren't the kind of descriptive details we find in, say, J G Ballard's apocalyptic novels. Ice slathers Europe sooner than it should, I think, and the disastrous effects on the global economy and politics don't appear. Europe just... dies.
The middle section is a nice colonial reversal, as white folks in Nigeria get treated like poor immigrants of the wrong skin color. One of our characters becomes a... private secretary? call girl? for a wealthy black man. Two of the others are swiftly broke and homeless, ending up living in a shantytown, with the only jobs available being prostitution (for the woman) and the army (for the man). This must have had quite a charge in 1962; today's progressive and reactionary readers may appreciate it.
The four main characters are far too thinly drawn. Our point of view character is a passive cipher who bobs along, meekly accepting everything coming his way. His friend (initially) is quite the opposite, an energetic man who steals the pov's wife - yet keeps in touch, not minding as the friend ends up with his ex. Typical middle class mid century plotting, and not too interesting.
Except in two ways. First, the proactive male character embodies the kind of postapocalyptic male essentialism we still see today (check The Walking Dead). He arranges sexual connections, controls money, and ultimately becomes a warlord. Throughout the book he successfully manipulates and uses his male opposite number. There's a simple alpha-beta male game at work, with the explicit argument that chaos brings it forth. A cliche, but a durable one. Second, while the woman are mostly cardboard cut-outs we get a hint that one wife has agency. She leaves her husband for his friend on her own terms, showing a lot of agency for someone usually in a passive role. She then takes the lead in their subsequent communications and connection. I am curious about how others read her today.
The conclusion is curious. Our point of view character finally becomes an action hero, saving the Nigerian expedition from attacks, then betraying it so he can resettle in England with his friend's wife. It's a romantic conclusion. It's also curiously political, turning his back on his Nigerian patrons, so becoming something nativist. I read this as bitterly satirical, but am not sure of how it read at the time, or since.
I should go read The Chrysalids, because somehow I missed it.
The story focuses on four British characters, two couples, as our point of view. Two men are well off, a tv producer and a government official. Their wives stay at home (recall the novel's from the early 1960s). During the first third we follow their reactions to the building crisis, leading to decisions to flee the UK for warmer Nigeria. The central section sees those three trying to survive as refugees. In the final chapters one character flees back to England, while another looks for her by riding along with a Nigerian expedition.
I'm very fond of John Christopher, starting with loving his Tripods trilogy when I was a kid, but this is a fairly weak effort, all things considered. The catastrophic idea is gripping, yet not too well fleshed out. There aren't the kind of descriptive details we find in, say, J G Ballard's apocalyptic novels. Ice slathers Europe sooner than it should, I think, and the disastrous effects on the global economy and politics don't appear. Europe just... dies.
The middle section is a nice colonial reversal, as white folks in Nigeria get treated like poor immigrants of the wrong skin color. One of our characters becomes a... private secretary? call girl? for a wealthy black man. Two of the others are swiftly broke and homeless, ending up living in a shantytown, with the only jobs available being prostitution (for the woman) and the army (for the man). This must have had quite a charge in 1962; today's progressive and reactionary readers may appreciate it.
The four main characters are far too thinly drawn. Our point of view character is a passive cipher who bobs along, meekly accepting everything coming his way. His friend (initially) is quite the opposite, an energetic man who steals the pov's wife - yet keeps in touch, not minding as the friend ends up with his ex. Typical middle class mid century plotting, and not too interesting.
Except in two ways. First, the proactive male character embodies the kind of postapocalyptic male essentialism we still see today (check The Walking Dead). He arranges sexual connections, controls money, and ultimately becomes a warlord. Throughout the book he successfully manipulates and uses his male opposite number. There's a simple alpha-beta male game at work, with the explicit argument that chaos brings it forth. A cliche, but a durable one. Second, while the woman are mostly cardboard cut-outs we get a hint that one wife has agency. She leaves her husband for his friend on her own terms, showing a lot of agency for someone usually in a passive role. She then takes the lead in their subsequent communications and connection. I am curious about how others read her today.
The conclusion is curious. Our point of view character finally becomes an action hero, saving the Nigerian expedition from attacks, then betraying it so he can resettle in England with his friend's wife. It's a romantic conclusion. It's also curiously political, turning his back on his Nigerian patrons, so becoming something nativist. I read this as bitterly satirical, but am not sure of how it read at the time, or since.
I should go read The Chrysalids, because somehow I missed it.
March 15, 2025
A bit dull and boring until the last few chapters. And then, a quite unsatisfying ending. Bummer.
March 12, 2022
review of
John Christopher's The Long Winter
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 12, 2022
I've read 6 Christopher novels before this one. Somehow, he's managed to not become one of my favorite writers, there's something just a tad too conventional about the bks. Still, I enjoy them & I enjoyed this one, possibly, the most of all. Most of the other ones are targetted at YA readers & since I'm an OM reader the YA aspect doesn't appeal to me so much. The Long Winter is probably the most 'adult' one I've read yet. 'Adult' novels probably appeal to me the most but, then again, they're plenty of things about being an 'adult' that I cd do w/o.
""There's nothing wrong—nothing basically. He's meeting . . . a woman."
"With surprise, Andrew asked, "Did he tell you that?"
""No. He doesn't, at this stage. I've never been sure whether it's because he genuinely thinks he's deceiving me or just because he finds it embarrassing to talk about."" - p 20
See what I mean by 'adult'? 2 married people are talking about the husband of one having an 'affair'. I've never been married, I've avoided it. As much as I'd like to revel in romantic monogamy, it's never going to be 'perfect'. Even if the couple live 'happily ever after' one of them will die 1st & then what? I have little or no wisdom on the subject of happy mating, nonetheless, I still strive for it. That can be taken as either that I'm still alive or that I'm a fool or neither/or.
Essentially, this bk is about the weather becoming colder & of the consequences for humanity in general & some specific characters & their personal dramas in particular. Just the other day I made a new feature-length movie 'about the weather', featuring heavy snow in particular: "simplicity itself" (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/fFBrQn5MAjg; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/simplicit... ). Putting this movie on the screen nearest you while you read The Long Winter wdn't be a bad idea.
"The weather broke in mid-October, and the Fratellini hypothesis came back into the headlines, swept there by the blizzards that ranged over North America and continued unchecked across the Atlantic to Europe. In London, the first morning, there were three inches of snow, soon churned into mud and slush by the rush-hour traffic, but augmented, as the leaden morning wore on, by fresh falls. The wind was cold, from the northeast. Before midday, the evening papers were talking of Fratellini's Winter. The following morning, with snow still coming down, there was fuller coverage and more speculation. McKay called Andrew into his office where, Andrew observed, the large print of the Utrillo snow scene in Montmartre had been replaced by a Renoir of a girl in the long summer grass. McKay valued art for its thermal effects." - p 22
I find that last sentence particularly inspiring.
As it turns out, the afore-mentioned husband having an affair is having it w/ the other husband's wife. The initiator of the affair is a classic self-justifier, the type of person who always makes their behavior seem rational instead of selfish.
""A human being isn't a possession. We're all free agents, Andy. I'm as much against rape as anyone."
""They voluntarily make contracts. They incur responsibilities."
""You take people too seriously."
""You think that's a bad thing?"
''It depends how you look at them, I suppose. When it was a matter of immortal souls, and the risk of an eternal sizzle, one had to take oneself seriously. Aspects have changed."
""Aspects aren't standards."
""They affect them. And the moment you stop believing in the Jealous God and the Laws of Moses, you lose sight of land. After that it's every man his own navigator.["]" - p 34
It's snowing as I write this.
"There was a blizzard early in November and, while the snow still lay unthawed in gutters and gardens, another, fiercer and colder. Later the snow was gentler, less urgent, but more persistent. Toward the end of the month there was a fall which lasted, with very little intermission, for forty-eight hours. The temperature fell below zero and stayed there." - p 39
"Andrew said, "What about the Zoo animals?"
""They killed them off the day before things were closed down. They brought the carcasses of everything that was edible into the Pale." ""Who decided what was edible?"
"Chisholm laughed. "That's a point, isn't it? Standards are changing fast just now. I suppose there will be a few chewing rattlesnake and porcupine—raw as like as not."
"His brash insensitivity was probably enviable. In any case, for the job he was doing it was essential. Andrew saw one of the photographers focus on a body that lay huddled in the gutter and swing the camera round to hold it as they drove past. It was the luxuries of illusion and self-deception that were enviable—there had never been a sensitive butcher, and very few vegetarians who did not wear leather shoes. Enviable, and lost forever." - p 58
Of course, I prefer imagining the animals set free from all the zoos in the effected areas. How many wd survive? Wd the ones from southern climes immediately start heading south? This is a better time than most to link to my zoo movie: "ooZ(e)" - shot at the London Zoo in the spring of 1984 & at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium on April 1, 2021 (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/YiQ4mwV7xSY; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/ooze_2021... ).
Andrew & the 2 women emigrate to Africa to escape the largely food & heat deprived north. Given that they're white & the history of how white colonists had treated the blacks they imposed themselves on & given how refugees are generally treated this didn't turn out so great.
"["]The porter at my block of flats had a medical practice in Vienna."
""I hadn't realized it was as bad as that."
""There's one profession that's still open. You had a commisssion in Tanks. You could help them train for the war."
""What war?"
""Against South Africa. As far as I can see, it's expected to break out in two or three years' time. You might get a commission. They allow white officers up to the rank of captain, on short-service commissions."" - p 73
This bk is copyrighted 1962. For those of you fortunate enuf to miss one of the most egregiously racist eras of modern times consider the following:
"Apartheid (“apartness” in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years."
[..]
"In 1960, at the black township of Sharpesville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed blacks associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than 180 wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state. By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed."
- https://www.history.com/topics/africa....
That brings us to the time of the novel. Things got even worse before apartheid was finally ended. From the same history.com webpage:
"In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation."
For a considerably more compellingly explicit presentation of that era I suggest a movie called A Dry White Season (1989), made a few yrs before apartheid was put out of its misery.
Andrew & Madeleine don't fare well in Africa b/c the government doesn't allow their money in the country. They're essentially forced to live in a slum home.
""You got a fine house," the mammy repeated. "Come on over here."
"They followed her to a position close by the table which served for a kitchen. Squatting down, she pulled up a loose board and pointed to the space beneath it.
""You don't have to carry no slops outside," the mammy said. "Times, that's a real help."" - p 100
Nothing like plumbing. Imagine yrself w/o it, maybe you've actually gone w/o it already in yr life. I admit to having the bourgeois preference of running water in my home. Then again, having unpolluted water outside it is nice too.
I'm always on the lookout for Cockney Rhyming Slang, LOOK! I spotted some over there!
""Hope you can flogging well swim, china," Carlow said." - p 135
China plate rhymes w/ mate.
Andrew's journey takes him back to Not-So-Great-Anymore Britain w/ mostly the company of black Africans essentially seeking to colonize what's left of England. They get stranded on an island off the English coast where a "Governor" has managed to impose himself on a surviving population. Old-timey racism prevails.
"Abonitu said to the others. "Stay here. We'll be back in the morning." he went to the stores and brought out two pound tins of coffee. "Hope you'll accept these, Your Excellency," he said gravely.
""Take the coffee from Sambo, Colonel," the Governor said. "Coffee after dinner tonight. Take you back to old times, eh?" He laughed. "You can come and have a sniff at my cup."" - p 143
The "Governor"'s rise to power is explained to his captives.
""But the Governor—he's not had military experience? Not as an officer, anyway?"
"The Colonel hesitated. "Not prior to the Fratellini Winter."
""What did he do before that?"
"The hesitation this time was even more protracted. He had been a commanding figure once, Andrew saw, but he was thin and stooped and wore spectacles from whose rims some of the tortoiseshell casing had stripped away. He said at last, his voice clipped. "He was in my employ. A gardener and handyman." He looked at Andrew bleakly. "The connection has been a useful one to me, as you can see."" - p 144
Wweeelllllll, plenty more happens in this & a good time is definitely not had by all but it's time for us all to be tucked into bed. Let it be sd that Christopher takes a pretty insightful & multi-layered look at what might happen to an empire & its beneficiaries if the weather were to change a bit.
John Christopher's The Long Winter
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 12, 2022
I've read 6 Christopher novels before this one. Somehow, he's managed to not become one of my favorite writers, there's something just a tad too conventional about the bks. Still, I enjoy them & I enjoyed this one, possibly, the most of all. Most of the other ones are targetted at YA readers & since I'm an OM reader the YA aspect doesn't appeal to me so much. The Long Winter is probably the most 'adult' one I've read yet. 'Adult' novels probably appeal to me the most but, then again, they're plenty of things about being an 'adult' that I cd do w/o.
""There's nothing wrong—nothing basically. He's meeting . . . a woman."
"With surprise, Andrew asked, "Did he tell you that?"
""No. He doesn't, at this stage. I've never been sure whether it's because he genuinely thinks he's deceiving me or just because he finds it embarrassing to talk about."" - p 20
See what I mean by 'adult'? 2 married people are talking about the husband of one having an 'affair'. I've never been married, I've avoided it. As much as I'd like to revel in romantic monogamy, it's never going to be 'perfect'. Even if the couple live 'happily ever after' one of them will die 1st & then what? I have little or no wisdom on the subject of happy mating, nonetheless, I still strive for it. That can be taken as either that I'm still alive or that I'm a fool or neither/or.
Essentially, this bk is about the weather becoming colder & of the consequences for humanity in general & some specific characters & their personal dramas in particular. Just the other day I made a new feature-length movie 'about the weather', featuring heavy snow in particular: "simplicity itself" (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/fFBrQn5MAjg; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/simplicit... ). Putting this movie on the screen nearest you while you read The Long Winter wdn't be a bad idea.
"The weather broke in mid-October, and the Fratellini hypothesis came back into the headlines, swept there by the blizzards that ranged over North America and continued unchecked across the Atlantic to Europe. In London, the first morning, there were three inches of snow, soon churned into mud and slush by the rush-hour traffic, but augmented, as the leaden morning wore on, by fresh falls. The wind was cold, from the northeast. Before midday, the evening papers were talking of Fratellini's Winter. The following morning, with snow still coming down, there was fuller coverage and more speculation. McKay called Andrew into his office where, Andrew observed, the large print of the Utrillo snow scene in Montmartre had been replaced by a Renoir of a girl in the long summer grass. McKay valued art for its thermal effects." - p 22
I find that last sentence particularly inspiring.
As it turns out, the afore-mentioned husband having an affair is having it w/ the other husband's wife. The initiator of the affair is a classic self-justifier, the type of person who always makes their behavior seem rational instead of selfish.
""A human being isn't a possession. We're all free agents, Andy. I'm as much against rape as anyone."
""They voluntarily make contracts. They incur responsibilities."
""You take people too seriously."
""You think that's a bad thing?"
''It depends how you look at them, I suppose. When it was a matter of immortal souls, and the risk of an eternal sizzle, one had to take oneself seriously. Aspects have changed."
""Aspects aren't standards."
""They affect them. And the moment you stop believing in the Jealous God and the Laws of Moses, you lose sight of land. After that it's every man his own navigator.["]" - p 34
It's snowing as I write this.
"There was a blizzard early in November and, while the snow still lay unthawed in gutters and gardens, another, fiercer and colder. Later the snow was gentler, less urgent, but more persistent. Toward the end of the month there was a fall which lasted, with very little intermission, for forty-eight hours. The temperature fell below zero and stayed there." - p 39
"Andrew said, "What about the Zoo animals?"
""They killed them off the day before things were closed down. They brought the carcasses of everything that was edible into the Pale." ""Who decided what was edible?"
"Chisholm laughed. "That's a point, isn't it? Standards are changing fast just now. I suppose there will be a few chewing rattlesnake and porcupine—raw as like as not."
"His brash insensitivity was probably enviable. In any case, for the job he was doing it was essential. Andrew saw one of the photographers focus on a body that lay huddled in the gutter and swing the camera round to hold it as they drove past. It was the luxuries of illusion and self-deception that were enviable—there had never been a sensitive butcher, and very few vegetarians who did not wear leather shoes. Enviable, and lost forever." - p 58
Of course, I prefer imagining the animals set free from all the zoos in the effected areas. How many wd survive? Wd the ones from southern climes immediately start heading south? This is a better time than most to link to my zoo movie: "ooZ(e)" - shot at the London Zoo in the spring of 1984 & at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium on April 1, 2021 (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/YiQ4mwV7xSY; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/ooze_2021... ).
Andrew & the 2 women emigrate to Africa to escape the largely food & heat deprived north. Given that they're white & the history of how white colonists had treated the blacks they imposed themselves on & given how refugees are generally treated this didn't turn out so great.
"["]The porter at my block of flats had a medical practice in Vienna."
""I hadn't realized it was as bad as that."
""There's one profession that's still open. You had a commisssion in Tanks. You could help them train for the war."
""What war?"
""Against South Africa. As far as I can see, it's expected to break out in two or three years' time. You might get a commission. They allow white officers up to the rank of captain, on short-service commissions."" - p 73
This bk is copyrighted 1962. For those of you fortunate enuf to miss one of the most egregiously racist eras of modern times consider the following:
"Apartheid (“apartness” in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation. Under apartheid, nonwhite South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities. Contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years."
[..]
"In 1960, at the black township of Sharpesville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed blacks associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than 180 wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state. By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed."
- https://www.history.com/topics/africa....
That brings us to the time of the novel. Things got even worse before apartheid was finally ended. From the same history.com webpage:
"In 1976, when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets. The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation."
For a considerably more compellingly explicit presentation of that era I suggest a movie called A Dry White Season (1989), made a few yrs before apartheid was put out of its misery.
Andrew & Madeleine don't fare well in Africa b/c the government doesn't allow their money in the country. They're essentially forced to live in a slum home.
""You got a fine house," the mammy repeated. "Come on over here."
"They followed her to a position close by the table which served for a kitchen. Squatting down, she pulled up a loose board and pointed to the space beneath it.
""You don't have to carry no slops outside," the mammy said. "Times, that's a real help."" - p 100
Nothing like plumbing. Imagine yrself w/o it, maybe you've actually gone w/o it already in yr life. I admit to having the bourgeois preference of running water in my home. Then again, having unpolluted water outside it is nice too.
I'm always on the lookout for Cockney Rhyming Slang, LOOK! I spotted some over there!
""Hope you can flogging well swim, china," Carlow said." - p 135
China plate rhymes w/ mate.
Andrew's journey takes him back to Not-So-Great-Anymore Britain w/ mostly the company of black Africans essentially seeking to colonize what's left of England. They get stranded on an island off the English coast where a "Governor" has managed to impose himself on a surviving population. Old-timey racism prevails.
"Abonitu said to the others. "Stay here. We'll be back in the morning." he went to the stores and brought out two pound tins of coffee. "Hope you'll accept these, Your Excellency," he said gravely.
""Take the coffee from Sambo, Colonel," the Governor said. "Coffee after dinner tonight. Take you back to old times, eh?" He laughed. "You can come and have a sniff at my cup."" - p 143
The "Governor"'s rise to power is explained to his captives.
""But the Governor—he's not had military experience? Not as an officer, anyway?"
"The Colonel hesitated. "Not prior to the Fratellini Winter."
""What did he do before that?"
"The hesitation this time was even more protracted. He had been a commanding figure once, Andrew saw, but he was thin and stooped and wore spectacles from whose rims some of the tortoiseshell casing had stripped away. He said at last, his voice clipped. "He was in my employ. A gardener and handyman." He looked at Andrew bleakly. "The connection has been a useful one to me, as you can see."" - p 144
Wweeelllllll, plenty more happens in this & a good time is definitely not had by all but it's time for us all to be tucked into bed. Let it be sd that Christopher takes a pretty insightful & multi-layered look at what might happen to an empire & its beneficiaries if the weather were to change a bit.
December 31, 2022
I think the star rating, especially the description of each star, is misleading in a way. I very much enjoyed this novel as I have enjoyed all of John Christopher's works so far but I cannot give it a 4 star rating based on other ratings of 4 stars for better books. I feel kinda weird every time I have to put a number to a novel. The story is interesting and simple. The characters are smart and good and evil. I don't always agree with the choices they make but that's life in novels. Here is another weird point, especially with John Christopher; his endings are often super clean and final. Sometimes they feel abrupt but at least they are definite. The weird thing is that I am unsatisfied by unexplained or open endings but also disappointed in basic concrete endings. I don't know what I want. I would like to jump right into another Christopher novel but there is a limited supply outside of the YA stuff and I need to make this last a while longer. A real page turner and the kind of book you can read in one sitting. Despite the 3 stars, I loved it.
March 19, 2019
The most anemic, gutless, milquetoast protagonist I have ever read in this genre. I thought maybe this would be the guiding motif of the novel: the spreading cold of the northern hemisphere and its peoples, the loss of emotional heat, a Nietzschean disdain for the loss of will...but no, it never goes anywhere. Competent prose, and not much else.
May 18, 2010
As a kid I’d devoured John Christopher’s "The White Mountains", the first in the Tripod series. I readily identified with the three young boys who wanted to avoid assimilation into the mediocrity by being “capped” and controlled by the alien Tripods. Instead they set off for the White Mountains where they can live as nature intended despite the harsh conditions. It’s such a gay-boy story without intending to be that it earned a prize place on my boyhood bookshelf. Christopher’s "The Long Winter" is an adult version of this adventure that ties neatly into our current ecological crisis but in reverse—a drop in solar radiation has caused the first modern ice age. Europeans flee the frigid north for the African continent to survive, only to find themselves thrown off balance by the ruling black majority. What is interesting is that Christopher does not play up the ecological disaster, but rather the domestic troubles of TV producer Andrew Leedon, his promiscuous wife, her stubborn lover and his “tried and true” wife whom Andrew falls in love with, all with this horror show—eternal winter, wars and cannibalism—in the background. The novel tracks Andrew from the newly arctic London where the general populous has been left to their own devices, his humbling and eventual resurrection in Africa, and his return to London via hovercraft to reclaim the city and woman that he loves. In this unpresumptuous novel are the racial mores of 1960’s, the philsophy behind needing to identify not only with one’s country but with one’s race, and an interesting case study of an Englishman’s inability to let go of Queen and Country in the face of certain death. Maybe not a great book, but a fascinating read.
January 19, 2016
I was not expecting much when I picked up this book but the book was really beyond my expectations. In pages we slowly witness the break down of England with the coming ice age. This climate change reverses the refugee flow and we see citizens of mighty European and North American countries running for their lifes to the south. This section also clearly represents a middle class nightmare. Millions of people find themselves homeless and jobless in African continent. The whole events are told from the perspectives of four people who are two degenerate couples. These characters are described in details in quite a realistic way.
The protagonist Andrew is not a hero at all, he has all sorts of weaknesses. This is what I like about British shows and books on this genre. You never have super, cool heroes who are saving the world. (I just put McCormack's "Road" as an exception in that sense which is probably the best piece of the post-apocalyptic literature)
For me the thing which affects the credibility of book in adverse way is the misery of Europeans in Africa. Under such circumstances I would expect a military invasion of the north and many little Israels forming in equatorial zone. Even it would not be a military invasion the white folk would be running the southern countries economic and political infrastructure in short term. But here we witness millions of Europeans who are left at the mercy of local Africans and begging for their compassion.
Overall as an admirer of end of the world books this was one of the good ones I have ever read.
The protagonist Andrew is not a hero at all, he has all sorts of weaknesses. This is what I like about British shows and books on this genre. You never have super, cool heroes who are saving the world. (I just put McCormack's "Road" as an exception in that sense which is probably the best piece of the post-apocalyptic literature)
For me the thing which affects the credibility of book in adverse way is the misery of Europeans in Africa. Under such circumstances I would expect a military invasion of the north and many little Israels forming in equatorial zone. Even it would not be a military invasion the white folk would be running the southern countries economic and political infrastructure in short term. But here we witness millions of Europeans who are left at the mercy of local Africans and begging for their compassion.
Overall as an admirer of end of the world books this was one of the good ones I have ever read.
February 27, 2018
This is an odd and disturbing dystopian tale. The plot is relatively simple. The Northern Hemisphere (this is set in England, where London is the focus) goes cold. Permanent new Ice Age. Inhabitants of these new cold climes flee south, many to Nigeria (ex-Colonial connections). Life in Nigeria for the English is terrible. One goes home.
So why did I find this so disturbing? I think my main problem with this book is that it is set in the early 1960s, and is thus detailing a period of my own lifetime. And yet as I read it it's like studying something not only from another time but from another world. Manners, morals, attitudes, everything changed, gone, lost--given away. And whilst some people who read this book might think that's a good idea, given the subject matter is identity, I think it's the true apocalypse of our time.
Perhaps some of my unease lies in the very unlikely (almost ludicrous) plot devices the author uses to forward his tale. Having got his English MC to Nigeria, he needs him to return to the frozen remains of England, and so has the Nigerians put together a hovercraft squadron to mount a conquest of their old broken colonial masters and take Andy along with them. I still cannot get the image of a hundred Nigerians in hovercrafts zooming up the Thames to conquer snowy England out of my head. It's too bizarre to compute.
I do recommend this for anyone interested in post-apocalyptic tales. It's almost too anachronistic for anyone else, I think, and given the racial subject matter too problematic for many people to cope with.
So why did I find this so disturbing? I think my main problem with this book is that it is set in the early 1960s, and is thus detailing a period of my own lifetime. And yet as I read it it's like studying something not only from another time but from another world. Manners, morals, attitudes, everything changed, gone, lost--given away. And whilst some people who read this book might think that's a good idea, given the subject matter is identity, I think it's the true apocalypse of our time.
Perhaps some of my unease lies in the very unlikely (almost ludicrous) plot devices the author uses to forward his tale. Having got his English MC to Nigeria, he needs him to return to the frozen remains of England, and so has the Nigerians put together a hovercraft squadron to mount a conquest of their old broken colonial masters and take Andy along with them. I still cannot get the image of a hundred Nigerians in hovercrafts zooming up the Thames to conquer snowy England out of my head. It's too bizarre to compute.
I do recommend this for anyone interested in post-apocalyptic tales. It's almost too anachronistic for anyone else, I think, and given the racial subject matter too problematic for many people to cope with.
June 4, 2012
This was an interesting book to read. I enjoy reading about world end scenarios.
One of the scenarios I like the most is a winterish one. Like the movie The Day After Tomorrow.
This is a interesting book to read... The first chapter was the best (and was the end) then we go the begining... What happenned and why happenned and how the characters survived. The story tells that due to natural solar fluctuations a new ice age has dawned. (don't forget that this book was written in 62.) The book itself isn't about the disaster but how the people react to it. It has everything that was popular then... things like exploring gender, racism, polititcs, colonization, customs and other themes.
The characters are believeble and they act like human beings not flesh out characters... It's funny how the writer wrote about the reversal of fortunes... the colonized countries began to colonized a barren continent.
In the end I enjoy it. The end is believable but I thought that the end was a little rushed out. A couple dozen pages more would do great.
I will continue to read more of his books.. I have Death of Grass to read next.
One of the scenarios I like the most is a winterish one. Like the movie The Day After Tomorrow.
This is a interesting book to read... The first chapter was the best (and was the end) then we go the begining... What happenned and why happenned and how the characters survived. The story tells that due to natural solar fluctuations a new ice age has dawned. (don't forget that this book was written in 62.) The book itself isn't about the disaster but how the people react to it. It has everything that was popular then... things like exploring gender, racism, polititcs, colonization, customs and other themes.
The characters are believeble and they act like human beings not flesh out characters... It's funny how the writer wrote about the reversal of fortunes... the colonized countries began to colonized a barren continent.
In the end I enjoy it. The end is believable but I thought that the end was a little rushed out. A couple dozen pages more would do great.
I will continue to read more of his books.. I have Death of Grass to read next.
October 27, 2016
Judging from some of the negative reviews on here and my pre-conceptions of this novel before reading it, I think many readers were expecting some sort of The Day After Tomorrow sci-fi adventure but the Ice Age scenario is simply a means to make white Europeans refugees. In a complete topsy-turvy to current climate change where we are getting hotter temperatures and peoples from the equator will need to probably re-locate north and south, The World in Winter sees the British displaced and having to live homeless on the streets of Nigeria, taking low wage servitude or prostitution. Christopher wrote this in 1962 in reaction to racism in the UK when Commonwealth citizens were emigrating and setting up home in our cities. In 2016 when the UK is again seeing a rise in xenophobia and racism in response to EU open border policies and Syrian refugees, this work (although definitely dated in its racial language and attitudes) puts the reader in a "what if the shoe were on the other foot" situation that is thought provoking and timely.
August 9, 2013
The solar output of the sun is decreasing, leading to a harsher winter that never ends. Andrew Leedon is a TV producer in 1960s London who documents the disintegration of England and must also deal with the destruction of his own marriage. As society collapses, he flees with other refugees to Nigeria. This new life brings with it its own
issues. The government no longer recognizes England or its currency, leaving Leedon penniless and marginalized. And the sun shows no signs of warming.
It's by the guy who wrote the Tripods series, and it's clear that he has a thing for post-apocalyptic scenarios. It's told in the same, detached way as the Tripods stories (which may just be Christopher's writing style), but it works a lot better here. The book is a much more intelligent version of the story in The Day After Tomorrow, dealing more with the effects and aftermath of a global catastrophe and less about action movie tropes.
issues. The government no longer recognizes England or its currency, leaving Leedon penniless and marginalized. And the sun shows no signs of warming.
It's by the guy who wrote the Tripods series, and it's clear that he has a thing for post-apocalyptic scenarios. It's told in the same, detached way as the Tripods stories (which may just be Christopher's writing style), but it works a lot better here. The book is a much more intelligent version of the story in The Day After Tomorrow, dealing more with the effects and aftermath of a global catastrophe and less about action movie tropes.
March 25, 2014
The solar radiation is lowering, heralding a new mini-ice age. Andrew, a British journalist, must deal with this as he is forced to emigrate to Africa just to survive.
The "end of the world" part is thin. It's more a psychological study of what would happen if ever a first-world nation had to become refugees in a third world one, and it's not pretty. The most chilling parts of the book are where Andrew realizes that he is a non-entity in a place that actively hates his kind when it's not passively making sure he is shut out of things unless he can offer his skills or his body.
People also don't come out well at all. All the women are ultimately faithless, and even the "heroic" characters are flawed. Andrew is a good man, but is manipulated by so many people it isn't funny. Everyone has some kind of problem, and they aren't always the nicest of people.
It's got Christopher's excellent writing, but is more depressing than his other works. Good,but not great.
The "end of the world" part is thin. It's more a psychological study of what would happen if ever a first-world nation had to become refugees in a third world one, and it's not pretty. The most chilling parts of the book are where Andrew realizes that he is a non-entity in a place that actively hates his kind when it's not passively making sure he is shut out of things unless he can offer his skills or his body.
People also don't come out well at all. All the women are ultimately faithless, and even the "heroic" characters are flawed. Andrew is a good man, but is manipulated by so many people it isn't funny. Everyone has some kind of problem, and they aren't always the nicest of people.
It's got Christopher's excellent writing, but is more depressing than his other works. Good,but not great.
Read
January 28, 2022An intriguing sci-fi classic from 1962, with many parallels to things going on now, such as climate change and economic and political growth of post-colonial countries, but also some endearing anachronistic anomalies e.g. Woolworths, Lyons Tea Houses, non-digital communications (but it is presumably set in the 'not too-distant future'). Feminism and Racial Equality movements still had a way to go too, which is evident in how many of the characters are treated and the language used, but this still adds to the interest.
The story starts with the sun giving out less heat, and inducing a northern hemisphere ice-age, essentially turning Britain into an almost uninhabitable frozen wasteland. Journalist Andrew Leedon has to make decisions as to where his future lies, and then his hand is forced as his personal circumstances change. A fascinating book showing how little control we could potentially have over our lives should nature change its course.
The story starts with the sun giving out less heat, and inducing a northern hemisphere ice-age, essentially turning Britain into an almost uninhabitable frozen wasteland. Journalist Andrew Leedon has to make decisions as to where his future lies, and then his hand is forced as his personal circumstances change. A fascinating book showing how little control we could potentially have over our lives should nature change its course.
November 2, 2022
RA
I first came across The World in Winter as a school boy, attracted by a cover with a frozen Post Office Tower: not quite the picture of climate change we envisage to day. But it is scientifically possible, if the sun's radiative output were to decline. But as a boy I didn't appreciate the book's commentary on race, occupation, economic and cultural imperialism and supremacy. At times the narrative comes over as racist: it certainly is tainted by the values and prejudices of the time in which it was written. Something else that didn't appeal to a young reader: the long opening chapters which read like interlocked love triangles! There were themes which reminded me of the dystopian novel Swan Song blended with Conrad's inverted empire building in Heart of Darkness. All in all a well told story, played out over a well fleshed out friendship between a black man and a white man.
I first came across The World in Winter as a school boy, attracted by a cover with a frozen Post Office Tower: not quite the picture of climate change we envisage to day. But it is scientifically possible, if the sun's radiative output were to decline. But as a boy I didn't appreciate the book's commentary on race, occupation, economic and cultural imperialism and supremacy. At times the narrative comes over as racist: it certainly is tainted by the values and prejudices of the time in which it was written. Something else that didn't appeal to a young reader: the long opening chapters which read like interlocked love triangles! There were themes which reminded me of the dystopian novel Swan Song blended with Conrad's inverted empire building in Heart of Darkness. All in all a well told story, played out over a well fleshed out friendship between a black man and a white man.
May 10, 2020
This story is split into three distinct parts. The first in London, the second in South Africa and the third back in a very different London.
It follows the fortunes of Andrew Leedon, a television journalist who moves in the more privileged circles of London social life. It's all brandy, cocktails and dinner parties at first,despite the impinging cold weather which is beginning to take a hold on the Western world. Eventually, things get so bad that Andrew is faced with a choice - stay in London, which is falling victim to violent gangs and a newly burgeoning ice age, or, since he has some money, property and contacts, go to South Africa. He chooses the latter.
Once in Africa he and his then girlfriend Maddie (I won't bore you with the tedious in's and out's of the two main relationships in the story. I am not really sure why we needed to know about them, other than perhaps Maddie, who comes in at the very end to provide a near-twist to the story.) I found all four of the characters in this love square (appropriate term in more ways than one) rather bland and far too accepting of the state of, literal, affairs. No anger to speak of. No fire in the belly. Just fatalism and dreary over-acceptance. Yawn.
Be warned - this book is very much of it's time (beginning of the 1960's.) It is full of sexism and of even more racism. I am not what is commonly termed a 'snowflake' but I had a hard time sticking with it for those reasons, especially as the book goes on. I kept hoping that we would really get into the nitty-gritty of survival and leave all this to fall aside, as I am sure it would in a really desperate survival situation, but sadly, that never happens.
This is a less a story of a dystopian world, more a story of love, romance and rank, institutional racism. I can see that it is a comment on society and how the tables become turned, so to speak. How the 'white man' becomes subject to the black man's whims, becomes slaves and servants to them, are forced to live in hovels and earn a pittance for menial jobs. How white women are prostituted to earn a living wage. I get that it is the flip side of the coin which, sadly and shamefully, history shows us was true for black people for many, many years. I get that, the thing is, I am not sure what the author means to achieve by it. Especially since, in the end, the white man reigns supreme again, in London at least.
There was a point where it looked like (for the purposes of this book) the black man was the one with the power. Even in icy England, where an unlikely expedition on, of all things, Hovercrafts (they were a newish invention in the early '60's and so no doubt the author was utilising a hi-tech invention to make his book even more contemporary) set forth as a scouting party for a much bigger force to follow later. They intend to rule England too, them being the ones who still have a working democracy, money, crops, means of travel etc, all the trappings of modern civilisation. This expedition fails, largely because of Andrew, who changes sides to suit his own needs - which again, is probably realistic.
It felt almost as if the author, John Christopher, couldn't quite allow the black man to win, in the end. I don't know that of course. I may be doing him a disservice, but this is how it came across to me.
The premise to this book was really good, I thought. The weather being the portent of doom, the signaller of the end of the world as we know it. The idea of the museums and art galleries of London being open to the wind and snow, famous works of art covered in ice and left to rot, if it hadn't been sold before things got too bad. Of ravaging gangs roaming the streets, when the snowdrifts and blizzards were not too great to tackle, is a great one. There is mention of people on a channel island eating polar bear meat, of catching seal to survive. A character talks about cutting holes in the ice of the Thames, to catch fish which he could not identify but was tasty. This could all have been developed and embellished to great effect. Instead, it is more a backdrop to the story of love and racism.
When London accepts the worst and begins to withdraw into itself - the rich and powerful taking the best of the resources of course, which is at least probably realistic - the belt is tightened around the 'Pale of London.' Ordinary people beyond this (beyond the pale?) are left to fend for themselves, without the protection of armed forces. There is a brief incident in which Andrew, riding along with an army contingent with a view to getting some of the story on film, witness a young woman being raped by a group of men. They rescue her, taking her back to the gate beyond which the pale lies, only to be refused her entry to the camp. The image of her simply exiting the jeep and walking wordlessly away whilst the men argue her case, her clothes torn, only one boot on, was a compelling one. If only the story had carried on in this vein.
I bought this in the hopes that it would be a Penguin classic (it might be, in which case forgive me.) I was looking forward to a darkly shocking, irrevocably changed world in which people had to become resourceful enough to survive the elements, and brutal enough to survive other threats. There was very little of this. Even when there were gunfights on the Hovercrafts, Andrew misses most of them, coming late to the fight. It all feels very passive.
I suppose what I am trying to say is I wanted exciting and innovative, and I got dull and predictable. Again, I read this book from the perspective of living in 2020. I tried so hard to bear that in mind as I read. Every time I started a new Part of the story, I did so in the hopes we would finally get down to the dystopian. It just never did it, for me.
Disappointing, not dystopian.
It follows the fortunes of Andrew Leedon, a television journalist who moves in the more privileged circles of London social life. It's all brandy, cocktails and dinner parties at first,despite the impinging cold weather which is beginning to take a hold on the Western world. Eventually, things get so bad that Andrew is faced with a choice - stay in London, which is falling victim to violent gangs and a newly burgeoning ice age, or, since he has some money, property and contacts, go to South Africa. He chooses the latter.
Once in Africa he and his then girlfriend Maddie (I won't bore you with the tedious in's and out's of the two main relationships in the story. I am not really sure why we needed to know about them, other than perhaps Maddie, who comes in at the very end to provide a near-twist to the story.) I found all four of the characters in this love square (appropriate term in more ways than one) rather bland and far too accepting of the state of, literal, affairs. No anger to speak of. No fire in the belly. Just fatalism and dreary over-acceptance. Yawn.
Be warned - this book is very much of it's time (beginning of the 1960's.) It is full of sexism and of even more racism. I am not what is commonly termed a 'snowflake' but I had a hard time sticking with it for those reasons, especially as the book goes on. I kept hoping that we would really get into the nitty-gritty of survival and leave all this to fall aside, as I am sure it would in a really desperate survival situation, but sadly, that never happens.
This is a less a story of a dystopian world, more a story of love, romance and rank, institutional racism. I can see that it is a comment on society and how the tables become turned, so to speak. How the 'white man' becomes subject to the black man's whims, becomes slaves and servants to them, are forced to live in hovels and earn a pittance for menial jobs. How white women are prostituted to earn a living wage. I get that it is the flip side of the coin which, sadly and shamefully, history shows us was true for black people for many, many years. I get that, the thing is, I am not sure what the author means to achieve by it. Especially since, in the end, the white man reigns supreme again, in London at least.
There was a point where it looked like (for the purposes of this book) the black man was the one with the power. Even in icy England, where an unlikely expedition on, of all things, Hovercrafts (they were a newish invention in the early '60's and so no doubt the author was utilising a hi-tech invention to make his book even more contemporary) set forth as a scouting party for a much bigger force to follow later. They intend to rule England too, them being the ones who still have a working democracy, money, crops, means of travel etc, all the trappings of modern civilisation. This expedition fails, largely because of Andrew, who changes sides to suit his own needs - which again, is probably realistic.
It felt almost as if the author, John Christopher, couldn't quite allow the black man to win, in the end. I don't know that of course. I may be doing him a disservice, but this is how it came across to me.
The premise to this book was really good, I thought. The weather being the portent of doom, the signaller of the end of the world as we know it. The idea of the museums and art galleries of London being open to the wind and snow, famous works of art covered in ice and left to rot, if it hadn't been sold before things got too bad. Of ravaging gangs roaming the streets, when the snowdrifts and blizzards were not too great to tackle, is a great one. There is mention of people on a channel island eating polar bear meat, of catching seal to survive. A character talks about cutting holes in the ice of the Thames, to catch fish which he could not identify but was tasty. This could all have been developed and embellished to great effect. Instead, it is more a backdrop to the story of love and racism.
When London accepts the worst and begins to withdraw into itself - the rich and powerful taking the best of the resources of course, which is at least probably realistic - the belt is tightened around the 'Pale of London.' Ordinary people beyond this (beyond the pale?) are left to fend for themselves, without the protection of armed forces. There is a brief incident in which Andrew, riding along with an army contingent with a view to getting some of the story on film, witness a young woman being raped by a group of men. They rescue her, taking her back to the gate beyond which the pale lies, only to be refused her entry to the camp. The image of her simply exiting the jeep and walking wordlessly away whilst the men argue her case, her clothes torn, only one boot on, was a compelling one. If only the story had carried on in this vein.
I bought this in the hopes that it would be a Penguin classic (it might be, in which case forgive me.) I was looking forward to a darkly shocking, irrevocably changed world in which people had to become resourceful enough to survive the elements, and brutal enough to survive other threats. There was very little of this. Even when there were gunfights on the Hovercrafts, Andrew misses most of them, coming late to the fight. It all feels very passive.
I suppose what I am trying to say is I wanted exciting and innovative, and I got dull and predictable. Again, I read this book from the perspective of living in 2020. I tried so hard to bear that in mind as I read. Every time I started a new Part of the story, I did so in the hopes we would finally get down to the dystopian. It just never did it, for me.
Disappointing, not dystopian.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2021
A post-apocalyptic novel from almost half a century ago, this book eerily predicts an oncoming ice age due to environmental climate changes.
One couple flee London for Africa, but eventually find themselves returning to a very different home than the one they left behind.
This book is an all too often overlooked piece of classic science fiction that focuses not so much on the science, but more on the main two characters and how they are directly affected by this sudden upheaval to their lives.
It is a clever and very thought provoking novel that is scarily prescient of a situation that now seems a hell of a lot closer than it did back when this book was originally written.
One couple flee London for Africa, but eventually find themselves returning to a very different home than the one they left behind.
This book is an all too often overlooked piece of classic science fiction that focuses not so much on the science, but more on the main two characters and how they are directly affected by this sudden upheaval to their lives.
It is a clever and very thought provoking novel that is scarily prescient of a situation that now seems a hell of a lot closer than it did back when this book was originally written.
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