John Wyndham (1903-69) John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was the son of a barrister, who started writing short stories in 1925. During the war he was in the civil service and then the army. In 1946 he went back to writing stories for publication in the USA and decided to try a modified form of science fiction, which he called 'logical fantasy'. As John Wyndham, he is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids , but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes , The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned ).