John Wyndham moves through speculative fiction with his usual clean, unnerving calm: no frantic ray-guns, no chrome-plated nonsense, just social order quietly tilting until the room is no longer the room.

Consider Her Ways and Others collects six stories and novellas, including the title story, in which a woman wakes into a future society organised without men, and “Random Quest,” a strange alternate-life romance later adapted for television. First published as a collection in 1961 by Michael Joseph.

These are stories about gender, time, identity, social engineering, historical accident, and the way civilisation explains its own cruelties with the smooth voice of a public servant. A strong one for readers of mid-century British science fiction, feminist dystopian writing, quiet speculative horror, and anyone who likes their apocalypse served in sensible shoes.

Vintage Penguin paperback edition, published in Penguin Books in 1965. Good second-hand condition from photos, with age-toned pages, light cover and edge wear, and a clean, bright front cover for its age. Very nice 3/6 orange Penguin sci-fi object. The paper looks typically browned, because old Penguins were printed on paper apparently designed to lose a fight with oxygen.