Thread by @JulieAMcDowall

THREAD

Here's a collection of Cold War themed books coming this Autumn.

I'm going to start with WINDS OF CHANGE: BRITAIN IN THE EARLY SIXTIES by Peter Hennessy, published by @AllenLaneBooks who've given me permission to share one of the book's nuclear war stories with you.

Back in the early 60s, Whitehall planners worried about a surprise Soviet nuclear attack. The dreaded "bolt from the blue". How could the PM give nuclear retaliation orders if he was away from his desk? What if he was in his car? Harold Macmillan did not have a Nokia...

So one suggestion was to use the AA. Their mechanics, out on the road, had little radios, so "the idea was to use the AA radio system to alert the PM's driver who would then get him to a phone box as soon as possible so he could ring into No 10."

But wait! What happens if Macmillan gets rushed to the nearest phone box, Soviet missiles incoming, only to find he has no bloody change for the phone?

A 1962 letter between civil servants raised the troubling matter of keeping nuclear loose change handy:

"Perhaps we should see that drivers are provided with four pennies [the sum needed in a GPO phone box before you could press Button A and get through] I should hate to think of you trying to get change for sixpence from a bus conductor while those four minutes were ticking by."

The reply was cool and calm. "A shortage of pennies should not present quite the difficulties which you envisage", as one's Prime Minister can simply ask the Operator to reverse the charges.

So never let it be said that the absence of four pennies would hamper British response to the four minute warning.

This captures the weird, eccentric, almost twee nature of British preparations for nuclear war that I hope to capture in my book; the type that makes you want to smile fondly, but also scream and feel your mind crack like wafer.

So that's WINDS OF CHANGE, out in early September.

And in late September, also from @AllenLaneBooks, we jump forward to the early 1980s with Dominic Sandbrook in WHO DARES WINS. BRITAIN, 1979-1982

It's far more light and easy-going than the Hennessy, but you knew that anyway. Different style. He talks a lot about Thatcher and Cruise missiles and the fact there was no dual key system, meaning US could launch nuclear war from Britain without Brit permission.

"Because Britain did not own the missiles and had not paid a penny towards them, there was no "dual key" system. In theory, the Americans could launch a nuclear strike without even bothering to tell Downing Street."

Sandbrook asks why Thatcher didn't demand a dual key system. After all, the US had offered one. "The answer came down to money. If Britain wanted a dual key, it would have to buy the missiles outright, for at least £1 billion."

Money yet again interfering with Britain's ability to launch a nuclear war! Whether it's Macmillan's four pennies or Thatcher's billion.

He also covers the rise and the withering of CND, and how the nuclear threat soaked into 80s pop culture, quoting both Simon le Bon and Kenneth Williams. I liked it!

Then there's a new travel book from Rory Maclean @wander2wonder which is out 31 Oct from @BloomsburyBooks It's called PRAVDA HA HA: TRUE TRAVELS TO THE END OF EUROPE.

When the Berlin Wall fell, MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow and wrote Stalin's Nose. Now he's doing the same journey, in reverse, to find out why all our hopes for democracy and freedom behind the Iron Curtain haven't quite worked out as we thought.

I haven't read this yet, but have received a copy of FROM CHERNOBYL WITH LOVE: REPORTING FROM THE RUINS OF THE SOVIET UNION. It's by Katya Cengel and is out in Nov from @UnivNebPress

And BLOC LIFE by Peter Molloy was published last month but, incredibly, I missed it, so will include it here as I love Cold War oral history. The book gives first hand accounts of Soviet life from East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. There's a TV series to accompany it.

And finally, there's a new book from Serhii Plokhy in October. Of course, he most recently published a history of Chernobyl, so I'll mention his new one here even though it's WW2, not Cold War. This one is also from @AllenLaneBooks who just keep producing the goods!

Oh, and there's one more on my desk! This is about the role of Scotland in the Cold War.

FACING THE BEAR by Trevor Royle is out on 8th Aug from @BirlinnBooks

I think that's all the Cold War stuff that's coming this Autumn. Publishers, if I have missed anything then please DM me.

Let me finish, by kind permission of @AllenLaneBooks with another nuclear snippet from the Peter Hennessy book. When he entered BURLINGTON, the massive bunker beneath Wiltshire where the govt would have hidden in a 1960s nuclear war, he found some oddities...

Gouged into the limestone wall was some creepy graffiti saying STUCK HERE 4 ETERNITY. Wandering into the bunker's telephone exchange he saw phone books for the whole UK stacked on shelves, and beside them a copy of the Sexual Encyclopaedia.

And most fascinating, he found a list of items which were to be taken down into Burlington. Yes, desks, crockery, bedding, typewriters etc. But also altar cloths in green, purple, red, and white, plus several crosses and hexagonal brass candlesticks.

The idea of people setting up a makeshift altar down there and praying through the nuclear war is one of the most chilling things I can imagine.

Adding another Cold War book to the list. This one is out 24th Oct.