Trouble With Lichen
By John Wyndham

Wyndham's written some excellent novels, such as The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids, but Trouble with Lichen does not quite rise to their greatness. Not as good but still a short enjoyable read nonetheless.

The story concerns scientific research uncovering some amazing properties of an uncommon species of lichen: slowing down the aging process. The scientist who discovers this commercialises it in a product aimed at women and manages to generate herself many friends and allies. "Look ten years younger!". The women clients are often wives and mothers to important men: more allies. Wyndham has some fun working out the societal changes this sort of thing might bring about, the winners and the losers. It turns out that there would be widespread ramifications with a breakthrough like this. In our own age, wonder drugs are already starting to shake things up in some quarters (particularly the GLP-1 Agonists) and there will be more in the future. So the questions Wyndham asks here are quite relevant to our own world.

The book was published in 1960 and this was not very long after the role DNA played in inheritance was discovered in the Hershey-Chase Experiments (1952). Famously, the structure of DNA was shown to be a double-helix in 1953 by Crick and Watson (with the aid of Franklin and Wilkins). Maybe Wyndham had this new research in mind when writing his novel? Google Gemini thinks not but the march of science would have been a major influence on him throughout his writing career.

So, not a great novel but worth reading even though it does show its age somewhat.