Almost all cultures have a myth of paradise - envisaged either as a 'Golden Age' in the past, a time of earthly perfection not yet come, or a glorious afterlife beyond death. This is a study of a wide range of paradise concepts, widely separated in time and space. In a fascinating exploration of this theme, the author spans cultures and history, isolating distinctive features of these different perceptions of paradise and identifying their common significance in a thread running to the present.