Many of Edmund Cooper's books take place in post apocolyptic Britain. People have gone mad due to strange flares and sunspots. Everyone with an ounce of sense has killed themselves. Only physcos and other deranged misfits are left to re-build the human race. A group of criminal survivors start to get their act moving and put together a programme of development led by one man. I thought the story was good and had a retro British sci/fi feel to it.
Could stand alongside Day of the Triffids or Death of Grass. Edmund Cooper does not always recieve the recognition he deserves, but he was a good Brit sci/fi writer.