"If you were wishful to challenge the supremacy of a society that was fairly stable, and quite well weaponed, what would you do? Would you meet it on its' own terms by launching a probably costly, and certainly destructive, assault? Or, if time were no great importance, would you prefer to employ a version of a more subtle tactic? Would you, in fact, try somehow to introduce a fifth column, to attack it from within?"

First published in 1957, The Midwich Cuckoos was a return to familiar territory for John Wyndham after the more fantasy-themed Chrysalids. In many ways this is the archetypal Wyndham novel, containing all his classic themes and techniques, written in the classic style. It is also quite possibly his best-known work, with the possible exception of The Day of the Triffids. This is mainly due to the well-known film adaptation, Village of the Damned(196X), which led to a sequel, Children of the Damned, and a 1995 remake.

Synopsis

The quiet Winshire village of Midwich is disturbed for the first time in decades when, late one night, the entire population lapses into an inexplicable trance-like sleep. The army quickly cordons off the area and establishes that the effect influences a dome-shaped space - centred on a strange metallic object that has appeared at the centre of the village.

Nearly thirty-six hours later, the sleep-induction field vanishes, along with the object. Apart from a few residents who have died in accidents or of exposure, the villagers seem unaffected. But Colonel Westcott, an officer in military intelligence, recruits Richard Gayford, a newcomer to the village, to monitor the situation. Sure enough, some weeks later a remarkable fact becomes apparent - all the women in Midwich of child-bearing age present during the phenomenon are pregnant - over sixty in all.

Panic is narrowly avoided, but local eminence Gordon Zellaby is well aware of the full implications - the women have been implanted by some other intelligence present during the 'Dayout'. When the babies are eventually born, however, they seem wholly human, but for their golden eyes and hair. As time goes by, though, odd events occur - it seems the Children can exert a compulsive influence over those around them and are even capable of forcing self-harm. Zellaby also discovers the Children possess a strange linked intelligence - anything taught to one of the boys is instantly known by all of them, and the same applies to the girls.

The story moves forward seven years. The Children are now nine, but physically resemble adolescents. A local man has been killed in a road accident. The verdict is one of misadventure, but Zellaby and others know better - the dead man accidentally injured a Child and was compelled to kill himself by the others - a deliberate act of murder, but beyond the cognisance of the law. The dead man's brother attacks the Children with a shotgun but again is forced to commit 'suicide'.

Events escalate and an angry mob marches on the special school the Children attend. The Children make the villagers attack each other and several deaths ensue. Shortly afterwards they impose a restriction zone around Midwich - outsiders are allowed through, but not villagers, thus creating a human shield against any attack on them.

Westcott reveals that Midwich was not the only, or even first place to have a Dayout. In several places the Children were stillborn or killed, but a Soviet group survived and were raised in secrecy - hence military intelligence's interest in the Midwich colony. A few days ago, the Russians grew alarmed by their Children's burgeoning power and obliterated the whole town without warning, and have urged the other nations of the world to do the same with any other Children that may exist.

The Midwich Children demand transport out of the village to a place where they may mature in peace. Clearly, if allowed to survive, they will replace normal civilisation - but the morality of that very civilisation refuses to contemplate the necessary extermination of children, even ones as potentially lethal as these are. The Children seem in the ascendant until Zellaby - who, it is revealed, is already terminally ill - destroys himself, them, and their school with a bomb. His last letter is warning that, in order to survive, one must be prepared to take whatever measures are required...

"This is not a civilised matter... it is a very primitive matter. If we exist, we shall dominate you - that is clear and inevitable. Will you agree to be superceded, and start on your way to extinction without a struggle?"

Analysis