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John Christopher
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Pendulum Paperback – August 17, 2017

by John Christopher (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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The sixties … a foreign country: they did things differently then. Or did they?An Englishman’s home, supposedly, is his castle, and property developer Rod Gawfrey was incensed when a gang of hooligans gatecrashed his son’s party, infiltrating the luxury residence that was also home to his wife’s parents and her sister Jane.
He had no inkling then of the mayhem that was on its way, as the nation’s youth rose up in revolt, social order gave way to anarchy, and he and his family were reduced to penury.
Jane hadn’t seen it coming either, despite her professional and more personal connection to Professor Walter Staunton, the opportunist and lascivious academic bent on fomenting the revolution.
A pendulum, though, once set in motion, must inevitably swing back. And who would have guessed that Martin, Jane’s timid, God-fearing brother, would have a key role to play in the vicious wave of righteous retribution that would next sweep the land?
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  1. Print length
    316 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    August 17, 2017
  4. Dimensions
    5.06 x 0.79 x 7.81 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1911410040
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1911410041
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The SYLE Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 17, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 316 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1911410040
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1911410041
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 0.79 x 7.81 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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John Christopher

John Christopher

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Sam Youd was born in Lancashire in April 1922, during an unseasonable snowstorm.

As a boy, he was devoted to the newly emergent genre of science-fiction: 'In the early thirties,' he later wrote, 'we knew just enough about the solar system for its possibilities to be a magnet to the imagination.'

Over the following decades, his imagination flowed from science-fiction into general novels, cricket novels, medical novels, gothic romances, detective thrillers, light comedies ... In all, under his own name and a variety of pen-names, he published fifty-six novels and a myriad of short stories.

He is perhaps best known as John Christopher, author of the seminal work of speculative fiction, The Death of Grass, and a stream of novels in the genre he pioneered, YA dystopian fiction, beginning with The Tripods Trilogy.

'I read somewhere,' Sam once said, 'that I have been cited as the greatest serial killer in fictional history, having destroyed civilisation in so many different ways - through famine, freezing, earthquakes, feral youth combined with religious fanaticism, and progeria.'

Titles published under the pen-name of Hilary Ford and under his own name are also available on Amazon.

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4 out of 5 stars
25 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars John Christopher - One of My Favorite Authors.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    What a great book - I first read about 40 years or so ago and lost copy. This is a replacement. John Christopher was way ahead of his time. Highly recommend this book. Governments collapsing - chaos reigns. Book was in promised condition and arrived quickly.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • cirrusjh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Good read
    Report
  • Sloan
    4.0 out of 5 stars A very British "Mad Max" - sort of
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This reminded me a lot of the movie "Mad Max," although it's very British in character, and it was written over a decade before that movie. Don't be expecting car chases. I'm really speaking about the background culture of the story. There has been a financial collapse, law and order has failed, and teenage gangs of bikers have taken over the streets. They always existed, but their criminality had been curtailed before the police became ineffective. We follow Rod and his well-to-do family as they adjust to this unfolding cultural revolution.

    A second thread which runs throughout the novel concerns a religious Brotherhood. At the beginning, they are concerned only with going good deeds, such as visiting needy pensioners. But a charismatic leader emerges, and the group grows exponentially. This thread seems disconnected from the main story, but it's clear that the two will eventually converge in some manner.

    A fine addition to John Christophers's various disaster novels - probably the darkest, even though it might have the smallest body-count. I got really invested in the characters, and became reluctant to read the novel at bedtime, because of how it made me feel (that's a compliment, by the way, since so many novels engender apathy). This story feels curiously relevant to today, since we are going through something of a recession. I do feel, though, that the unfolding events lack realism occasionally. Having lived through the Northern Ireland Troubles, I can't see the police being so easily scared off by a bunch of anarchic youths on motorcycles.

    John Christopher always writes about the human condition. In this book he explores religious brainwashing, mob mentality, and perhaps liberal values as a mask for cowardice and inaction. I've always felt that liberals have a tendency to take tolerance to the point where they let the demons run amok. That is explored here; at least, that's how I interpreted it.
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  • Theo Robertson
    3.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately Unconvincing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I was looking for this book for many years. Economic collapse leads to violent lawlessness and seems like a great premise for a novel. Having been compelled by John Christopher's earlier novel The Death Of Grass I looked forward to reading Pendulum only to find it had been out of print for many years and had given up on ever reading it but The Syle Press made it avaliable so I looked forward to reading it

    Despite being set in the era it was written - the late 1960s - much of resonates in 2020 with covid and lockdown protests , Extinction Rebellion , Black Lives Matter and Keynesian economics and the novel works best during the chaos of a youth rebellion but unfortunately once the government is overthrown things become a bit too tame and unconvincing .

    Christopher shouldn't be criticised too harshly because he probably didn't set out to write the world's most depressing and grim novel and to be honest I'm not too sure I would have liked it to have been grimmer but the problem is that it ends up being rather forgettable and you're reminded of other similar stories that carried a harder impact . It's been just over 40 years since I read Nigel Kneale's novelisation of his own 1979 Quatermass teleplay and still recall with anxiety what a future Britain devestated by gang warfare might resemble

    The novel gets its name due to the pendulum of chaotic lawless (Non) government being replaced by fascistic , theocratic government and I'm afraid I wasn't any more convinced by this counter-revolution than I was by the youth revolution. Evangelical Anglicans ? Are Anglicans even a religion ? It's definately a stretch of imagination trying to visualise the Islamic intifada of Children Of Men scene with a bunch of vicars from Songs Of Praise . I can understand why no one might have picked up the film rights to this book because it would have illustrated just how ludicrous some of the aspects to this story are

    That said the story did hold my attention and I was in need of entertainment that wasn't going to leave me traumatised and considering I had given up hope on ever reading this book it should be counted as a pleasant surprise
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  • C
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Centre Does Not Hold
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    British society convulses over a period of months, from increasing anarchy to the horror of a new reactionary rule, as seen through the eyes of a well-to-do family.

    As this was written in the late 60s, there's some obvious middle-aged-man-in-the-60s bits of writing - flashes of racism and an eyebrow-raising strain of homophobia where it's treated as a sign of decay, and the youth gangs don't _quite_ convince as how actual young bikers of the 60s dressed and talked. There's also some worryingly prescient moments with the collapse of society and rise of theocracy, as you have the decaying services that would more fully happen in the 70s, a Christian equivalent of the Islamic Revolution to come, and the chaos from distant rioting makes for an uncomfortable read a few days after the 2021 riots in DC.

    The character work is extremely strong for the leads and many of the secondaries, which more than makes up for some of the silly-to-us moments with the yob gangs. All of the key Gafneys are fleshed out, they show flashes of strength and weakness and hypocrisy and cynical rationalism as everything falls apart and they have to adapt (or try to). Throughout the book, Rod, Jane and the rest need to work out how to stay fed and how to not get their heads cracked open, and everything can shift at any moment.

    Christopher's also writing at a time when publishing was more liberal with sex and violence but not as liberal as it would become, so the flashes of violence and threatened sexual assault, when they come, are harsh jolts, written in clinical terms (for violence) or implied menace (assault), and all the more effective for it.
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  • T
    4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly flawed
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Both amusingly dated and scarily prophetic…Brexit anyone?
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