A fascinating, frightening and sometimes funny window into an all-too recent world - everyday life in Britain in the shadow of the mushroom cloudThe first book to tell the story of day-to-day life on the nuclear home front - from the host of #1 podcast Atomic HoboA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK and GUARDIAN BEST PAPERBACK FOR APRIL 2024'So entertaining' THE TIMES'Cracking' SUNDAY TELEGRAPHThe 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
Timely ... McDowall's excellent book is a chilling reminder of the horrific reality of nuclear war -- Guardian April 2024's Best Paperbacks
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
An atomic Dad's Army, McDowall's history of the UK's nuclear civil defence is full of hilarious gems Daily Telegraph
Most interesting Times Literary Supplement
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
A fascinating read Radio Times
McDowall's book has the tone of a podcast [...] She leads her audience round bunkers, propaganda films and government records, pointing out the horrifying, the unexpected and the absurd London Review of Books
Grimly funny reading… this grimly entertaining history of our preparation for mass destruction is both timely and troubling Daily Mail
Fascinating ... a chilling glimpse of an alternative world SFX Magazine
An unsettling festive read Soldier
Julie McDowall is a freelance journalist and book critic specialising in the nuclear threat. Her writing has appeared in The Times, Economist, Spectator, Guardian, TLS, Prospect and Independent, and she is also the host of the Atomic Hobo podcast in which she reveals findings in the nuclear archives and reports on her travels to nuclear bunkers and other Cold War sites.
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