Midwich Cuckoos

Space invaders remain a common theme to this day. In skimming though the last century, it's impossible not to stop at John Wyndham's rather cosy invasions, which are probably all the more effective because of their attack on middle England. Day of the Triffids is the best known, with its unlikely mobile killer plants and a blinded humanity, but more effective is the Midwich Cuckoos, where the invasion takes place in the much more subtle context of alien impregnation of the women of a village. The golden-eyed children who result are treated with as much conspiratorial secrecy as anything in the X Files.