The Death of Grass
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| The Death Of Grass | |
 Cover of a U.S paperback edition of "No Blade of Grass" (The Death of Grass) |
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| Author | Samuel Youd (as John Christopher) |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Michael Joseph |
| Publication date | 1956 (UK) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 231 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0140013008 |
The Death Of Grass (aka No Blade Of Grass) is a 1956 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel written by the British author Samuel Youd under the pen name of John Christopher, the first in a series of post-apocalyptic novels written by Youd. It deals with the concept of a virus that kills off all forms of grass.
The novel was written "in a matter of weeks" and liberated Youd from his day job. It was retitled No Blade of Grass for the US edition as supposedly the US publisher thought the original title "sounded like something out of a gardening catalogue" and the film rights were sold to MGM.[1] The movie version, No Blade of Grass, Produced and directed by Cornell Wilde, was released in 1970.
The novel is currently out of print in the UK, but can still be found in public libraries.
[edit] Plot summary
As the story opens, the initial viral strain has already attacked rice crops in East Asia causing massive famine and a mutation has appeared which infects the staple crops of West Asia and Europe such as wheat and barley, threatening a famine engulfing the whole of the Old World, while Australasia and the Americas attempt to impose rigorous quarantine to exclude the virus.
The novel follows the trials and struggles of the narrator's family as they attempt to make their way across the United Kingdom, which is already descending into anarchy, to the safety of his brother's potato farm.
The book is unusually harsh in terms of post-apocalyptic science fiction of the period, with the main characters sacrificing many of their morals in order to stay alive. At one point, when their food supply runs out, they kill an innocent family simply to take their bread. The narrator justifies this with the belief that "it was them or us." Some critics have viewed this as an attempt by the author to distance the work from the cosy catastrophe pattern made popular by John Wyndham in a similar way to the relationship between William Golding's Lord of the Flies and its model Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne.
