John Wyndham was a science fiction writer born on July 10 1903. His name was actually a pen name of his full name, John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. He often used variations of his names in his earlier works.

He attended a number of boarding schools in England. Blundell's School was one of them, which he attended during the First World War.

In his early years, he tried out a number of careers, including advertising, law, art and also studied farming after he left school.

In the 1930s, he wrote detective stories alongside science fiction, and was in the army in the 1940s, where he served as a corporal cipher operator in the Royal Corps of Signals.

His most famous work is 'The Day of the Triffids'. Other works include 'The Kraken Awakes', 'The Chrysalids', 'Chocky' and 'Web' (a short novel).