In 1962 the Mermaid Theatre in London staged a production of Hoyle's play for children, Rockets in Ursa Major. It was reworked by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle and published as a novel by Heinemann in 1969. In 1974 it was followed by a somewhat darker sequel, Into Deepest Space. This draft of the opening of Into Deepest Space shows Fred Hoyle's manuscript corrections to an earlier version of the book.
In Rockets in Ursa Major, the earth is saved from an attack by an alien race called the Yela. Into Deepest Space is set three years later, when the Earth is once more in danger. The Yela are sending a huge cloud of hydrogen across space which they will wrap around the Earth and then ignite, ensuring an unpleasant death for all who remain on the planet. A fleet of ships set out to defend the planet, but they are drawn out into interstellar space. They travel so far that they come into the vicinity of a quasar, and are finally able to answer some questions about the fundamental nature of the universe.