Description

The first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front – from the host of #1 podcast Atomic Hobo

**A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK and A GUARDIAN BEST PAPERBACK FOR APRIL 2024 **

‘So entertaining’ THE TIMES
‘Cracking’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

The atomic bombs of 1945 changed everything. For the next forty years, the mushroom cloud loomed large in public imaginations and fear of the blast’s apocalyptic power coloured every aspect of British daily life.

From makeshift shelters and herbal remedies to sirens that offered four-minute escapes, ordinary people were taught how to save themselves in the face of a catastrophe that was not survivable. Meanwhile, bunkers were readied for those officials and experts who would ensure life continued after Armageddon.

At once chilling and darkly funny, this is the story of how Britain braced for nuclear conflict – and of how, so long as nuclear weapons exist, the threat of total annihilation will always be with us.

‘Thrilling and profoundly important’ JULIET NICOLSON
‘Simultaneously horrifying, weirdly nostalgic and darkly hilarious’ MARK HADDON
‘Impossible to believe, just as hard to put down’ DAN SNOW

Publisher Review

Cracking * Sunday Telegraph * So entertaining * The Times * Very good … A sobering book, but a gripping one * Spectator * Julie McDowall’s thoroughly gripping study … makes for genuinely startling and sometimes darkly funny reading… [it’s] brilliantly chilling and sparkily engaging * Mail on Sunday * Attack Warning Red! is a timely reminder of the mind-blanking horror of nuclear warfare, as it menaces Europe once more * Sunday Times * Simultaneously horrifying, weirdly nostalgic and darkly hilarious * Mark Haddon, author of The Porpoise * Impossible to believe, just as hard to put down. Urgent. Terrifying * Dan Snow, historian and host of History Hit * Superb … a lucid, totally compulsive read from beginning to end, chilling as well as profoundly empathetic in tone * Mick Jackson, director of Threads * Brilliant and unforgettable … A beautifully writtern horror story and amazing work of research … Julie McDowall has made the unreadable compulsive and the unthinkable thinkable, but above all this is a book that cherishes humanity in all its absurdity, intelligence, vulnerability, courage and, against all odds, belief in hope and survival * Juliet Nicolson, author of Frostquake * Captivating, chilling, and at times darkly humorous. A fascinating insight into Britain’s preparations for surviving Armageddon, and the ghastly reality of what the aftermath of a nuclear war would actually be like * Lewis Dartnell, author of The Knowledge * Fascinating * Sir Lawrence Freedman, author of Command * How to prepare for Armageddon? Julie McDowell has written the best exploration yet of how successive British administrations grappled with the challenge of living under the shadow of nuclear war, with depth, compassion and very necessary dark humour * Prof. Mark Galeotti, author of The Weaponisation of Everything * This by turns harrowing and farcical book charts the reality of living under constant threat of nuclear oblivion * iPaper * Timely … harrowing … farcical … the most surprising aspect of Attack Warning Red!, however, is that, alongside generous helpings of fear and unease, it carries a strong charge of nostalgia * Scotland on Sunday * Attack Warning Red! effectively pulls together many strands from this unsettling aspect of British history and weaves them in a way that will alarm and entertain * BBC History Magazine *