Attack Warning Red by Julie McDowall

As a teenager in the 1980s, I grew up in the shadow of the bomb. I vividly remember watching the Wargame at a screening organised by a local CND group which one of our English teachers at school was a member of. I also recall watching Threads on the BBC a couple of weeks before I moved to Sheffield for University, thinking “Well, at least I’m going to be at Ground Zero when it happens”. 

Julie McDowall also saw Threads, although in her case she was much younger and the experience had a traumatic impact. Since that formative experience, she has confronted her fears by taking an academic approach to studying the effects of nuclear weapons, their history and development, and the ways that different governments have thought the unthinkable and tried to prepare their populations to survive a nuclear war. 

This book builds on episodes of her Atomic Hobo podcast and focuses on civil defence in Britain, from the days of keeping calm and carrying on in World War II to the grim prospects of the aftermath of firestorms and fallout on the relatively small land mass of the British Isles where nowhere is far from a potential military or industrial target. 

The level of meticulous research in this book is evident, with numerous footnotes, illustrations and an extensive bibliography, but it is also an engaging read, with personal anecdotes and experiences of the author included. Highly recommended, with the caveat that the subject material is literally the stuff of nightmares.