John Wyndham

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes. Many of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes.

Web (1979

The events depicted in Web which was published ten years after the author's death, are written from the viewpoint of Arnold Delgrange, a man whose wife and daughter were recently killed in a motor accident. The story is of around a failed attempt to establish a utopian colony on the fictional island Tanakuatua in the Pacific Ocean, remote from civilisation.

Tanakuatua is now uninhabited by humans, as its native inhabitants were evacuated from the island due to British nuclear testing and were relocated. However a small group of natives defy the evacuation order and placed a curse on any people who returned to the island. When Delgrange and his fellow pioneers reach the island they soon discover it has been overrun by spiders that hunt in packs.

There are a forceful few elements at work in this short novel, not in the least being the history of the island itse;f, which is well told before the action arrives there, and the nature of the utopian community which establishes itself briefly there. In fact, there is no sense of utopia at all as the colonists last only a week to ten days before they discover that the island is already inhabited. What is best played out here however is John Wyndham's belief that mankind has not the power of nature that it believes. These matters are discussed between the characters before and during the disaster on the island. What I like about it Web in particular, is that