Derleth Award Given to TRIFFIDS

FantasyCon Awards Simon Clark Top Honors

By Chris Wyatt     October 07, 2002

The 2002 British Fantasy Convention (FantasyCon) awarded its yearly "Derleth Fantasy Award" to UK writer Simon Clark's novel NIGHT OF THE TRIFFIDS. The book is a literary extension of the classic 1951 SF novel DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS by John Wyndham, which was transformed into an equally classic film of the same name in 1962...and into a decidedly unclassic TV version in 1981. Triffids are walking, acid-spitting alien plants who are bent on conquering the Earth.

The Derleth Award is given for excellence in literature of the fantastic. It's named after noted American poet (and close correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft) August Derleth.

NIGHT OF THE TRIFFIDS, though published over a year ago in Clarke's native England, has yet to be released by an American SF imprint.