The World in Winter
(original title The Long Winter)
by Sam Youd, writing as John Christopher.
Introduction by Hari Kunzru.
Penguin Worlds,
Penguin Books, 2016 (1962).
‘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?
Continue reading “Carry their sun with them”
Calmgrove 