When he came to Earth (or Sykaos as it was known to the Oitarians), the poet/space traveller/gardener Oi Paz declaimed its attractions. It seemed to him that if it should prove to be inhabited by intellectual beings that they could not fail to be harmonious within such harmonious surroundings. The truth shocked him. How could such noisome, graceless beasts so closely resemble the humans of Oitar and carry on in this higgledy fashion? Decoding the nuances of their crudity, language, myths and lawgivers became essential when the primitives dismantled his space craft. However, as Oi Paz grows accustomed to life on Earth, he also experiences an unforeseen breakdown of his Oitarian taboos, while at the same time his presence seems to trigger off a perilous tendency among his captors to fulfil their dreadful Sykotic destiny. The epic sojourn of Oi Paz presents a vision of earth not only as it is to the extraordinary outsider, but very much from within. E.P.Thompson is the author of many works of non-fiction, including The Making of the English Working Class. This is his first novel.