#87. GREYBEARD By Brian Aldiss

Published : 1965
Pages : 239
Overall Mark : 8/10

Since the 'Accident', when nuclear weapons were exploded in orbit, mankind has been sterile and no children have been born. Civilization has crumbled. In scattered enclaves, the old live as best they can while nature overwhelms the cities and roads. Algy Timberlane - Greybeard - and his wife, Martha, embark on a boat trip down the Thames to the sea, journeying through the strange new landscape, encountering extraordinary communities and people, in search of hope...

BRIAN ALDISS (1925-)
After serving in the Royal Signals in Burma and Sumatra in the Second World War, Brian Aldiss worked in an Oxford bookshop and was for many years the literary editor of the Oxford Mail. He is the most distinguished SF writer in Britain and his many honours include the award of the OBE for services to literature in 2005.

VERDICT
Fans of post-apocalyptic literature couldn't go wrong with checking this out. Aldiss presents a world that is dying; a world where there are no new born children and the current generation are faced with the fact that they will be the last. It is a touching tale about humanity's coping mechanisms and of how love survives even in the face of certain doom.