The stories in this book began as individuals. Some, 'Diocletian's Cabbages', had been in my mind as an intriguing idea for years while others, 'A Head Start', came complete, quite suddenly, often waking me in the early hours of the morning. Only after several had been written down did I realize that they all spoke of change. I arranged them, not in the order in which they had been written, but geographically. They started in Europe and moved through England to the west coast of Canada and the United States. Only when this was settled did I see that they began and ended in the same place.