The Children of Men - P.D.James

It is the year 2021. No children have been born since 1995 - now known as Year Omega. Britain is ruled by a dictator known as the Warden of England who institutes a series of policies to protect the aging and declining population. Violent criminals are shipped to a penal colony on the Isle of Man and left to their own devices. Immigration is strictly controlled, and limited numbers are allowed in to work as Sojourners, living in camps and taking on menial tasks, before being returned to their country of origin when they reach the age of sixty. Healthy men and women undergo compulsory annual fertility tests, even though nobody expects any more children to ever be conceived. The elderly are offered the chance to commit suicide in groups in a ceremony known as the Quietus. The State Security Police ensure that the Warden's will is carried out, with ruthless efficiency.

Oxford academic Dr Theo Farron, cousin of and former advisor to The Warden, seems destined to live out his life in comfortable ennui, carrying the guilt of a failed marriage and a lost child. Life in Britain is ending, not with a bang but with a whimper, and nobody really seems to care very much. He is approached by a small group of hopelessly amateurish revolutionaries who want him to use his personal connection to bring their varied concerns before the Warden, and against his better judgement he finds himself drawn into their plans.

This is a book of ideas, science fiction in the classical sense of the term. It has been described as a dystopian future, and yet the idea of a comfortable managed decline with nature gradually reasserting its grip as the infrastructure of modern life crumbles seems curiously attractive. If the price of security is the loss of democracy and a thinly veiled fascist government ruling with an iron fist in a velvet glove, then so what? What would you do differently? What would anyone do differently, once they had had a taste of absolute power.

The book contrasts the world weary pragmatism of Theo with the varying motives of the revolutionaries. They are by turns motivated by religious idealism, a need for justice and restitution, or other factors that become clear as the story unfolds. Love in various forms is also an important consideration, from the self deluded love of an unsuitable marriage to self sacrificing agape love.

If the book has any failing, it is that I would have liked to see more of the effects of the lack of children on society in addition to some of the tantalising and bizarre snippets that we get, particularly where pets become child substitutes. The beautiful and aloof omega generation - namely the last year of children born - also get short shrift, apart from one or two scenes.

Still, on balance I would say that it is excellent, thought provoking and engaging, and well worth reading although judging by the trailer it is very different to the film version.