My favourite book as a teenager was The Crysalids by John Wyndham – dystopia before they were using the term. I read it aged 12, 14, 16 and 26. It’s a powerful and unsettling coming of age story set in a post-nuclear community where intolerance and religious conservatism reign. Difference, in the form of genetic mutation, is seen as deviation from God’s creation, and hounded and stamped out. A brilliant, brilliant study of bigotry and humanity. Two words – Sophie’s foot. I cry every time.
