The story of a 12 year old boy who is apparently "possessed" by an apparently benign alien intelligence, it was unusual science fiction because it was written from such a small-scale, human perspective (a whimper rather than a big bang).
Wyndham's work is almost insanely middle-class, reflecting the mores of his era (everyone seems to call each other "darling" in a way that sounds absurdly affected to modern ears), so much of the dialogue can, today, seem stilted.
In 1984 a children's tv series was made from Chocky, and I watched it, for the first time, over the weekend.
Given the low budget, low production values and dismal special effects of the time (and the inherent woodenness of child actors), it was, strangely, an affecting piece of work.
Dated tv of a dated novel sounds like no fun, but it stimulated all those fond memories for me. Very nice.
*Not my first favourite, though...
... that would be The Chrysalids (1955), featured at some point or other years ago on one of the blogs.
And I had a choice of two book covers to illustrate that thought but couldn't choose between them. So you get them both.
The original "classic" typography to the designs of Tschichold is utterly wonderful, but I also like the relative subtlety of the modern illustration: you know something's wrong but have to look twice, and it so neatly fits the book.
Decisions, decisions.
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