The big blow-up had taken place twenty-five years before. England - such as it had become - was, save for small pockets of oldies, peopled by the Brats. These are sub-human hairless creatures that hunted in packs, whose only impulse was to kill. Since the oldies could no longer reproduce their own kind, mankind seemed doomed. But Peter Croft, with two companions, convinced that humankind's only hope lies not in physical conquest of the Brats but in some way through them, is forced to leave the village with its oldie inhabitants in search of a solution. What that solution is, and whether it represents anarchy or order, salvation or destruction, is Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes' absorbing and riveting theme for this outstanding novel of the future.
