Don Mathewson was Director of Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories of the Australian National University for nine years from 1977. Since 1955 he was involved in studying the Universe in remote parts of the world from solitary observatories at high altitudes. One of his many discoveries was the Magellanic Stream, a huge arc of hydrogen around our Galaxy pulled from the Magellanic Clouds. From his dome he would look up at the Magellanic Clouds and wonder if life would exist in this beautiful galaxy. He became so obsessed with this idea he decided to write this book.