Trouble with Lichen

Dec 28, 2025 8:48 PM

Author:John Wyndham

Trouble with Lichen

FROM THE RENOWNED CLASSIC SCI-FI WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS AND THE CHRYSTALIDS

'Ingenious' Evening Standard

Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, two scientists investigating a rare lichen, discover it has a remarkable property: it retards the aging process. Francis, realising the implications for the world of an ever-youthful, wealthy elite, wants to keep it secret, but Diana sees an opportunity to overturn the male status quo by using the lichen to inspire a feminist revolution.

As each scientist wrestles with the implications and practicalities of exploiting the discovery, the world comes ever closer to learning the truth . . .

Trouble With Lichen is a scintillating story of the power wielded by science in our lives and asks how much trust should we place in those we appoint to be its guardians?

Reviews

Ingenious

—— Evening Standard

Vibrant, original, at times hilarious...reminiscent of Philip Roth or Jonathan Franzen (or The Royal Tenenbaums, for that matter)

—— New Statesman

Wodicka has crafted an eccentric tale full of humour and compassion

—— Guardian

A boisterous debut...a genuinely moving narrative - applause is justified

—— Times Literary Supplement

Packed with wit, humour and wise epigrammatic observations on life

—— Big Issue

Wodicka's narrative displays a skill that frequently belies his status as a first-time novelist

—— The Times

So who's the worst father in literature? Lear? Pap Finn? Michael Henchard? Ladies and gentlemen, there's a new contender in town. Tod Wodicka has created a monster of neglect and lack of awareness in bulbous-nosed Burt Hecker, a 63-year-old American medieval re-enactor who wouldn't know answerability from a hole in the ground.

—— Sunday Telegraph

Wodicka is assured and original, and his wry and subtle prose is a pleasure throughout. Burt is a pathetic, frustrating and sympathetic creation, heartbroken and heartbreaking as he struggles to pull himself together for his children.

—— Observer

Wodicka is original and writes an efficient, precise prose

—— Irish Times

A wonderfully memorable protagonist... and an arresting narrative that manages to combine both tragedy and hilarity

—— The Bookseller

Funny... accomplished

—— Kamran Nazeer , Prospect

Boy is it fun to read All Shall Be Well...Traveling through Eastern Europe with Burt Hecker, aka Eckbert Attquiet, medieval re-enactor and mead-addled father, is a little like heading south with Charles Portis' Ray Midge or being holed up in the campgrounds with Nabokov's Charles Kinbote - uproarious, wholly odd, wonderfully rendered

—— Joshua Ferris

An astonishing, beautiful book. It's comic and compassionate, assured in tone and richly poetic. Best of all, it's so original, unfolding in brilliantly unexpected and entertaining ways. Easily among the very best novels - never mind debuts - that I've read in years.

—— Peter Hobbs, author of The Short Day Dying and I Could Ride All Day in My Cold Blue Train

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

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