Keep Calm and Carry On

Dec 21, 2024 10:48 PM

Keep Calm and Carry On was a World War 2 government poster discovered in a dusty box nine years ago. Though it never saw the light of day in 1939 (it was only supposed to go up if Britain was invaded), it has suddenly struck a chord in our current difficult times, now we are in need of a stiff upper lip and optimistic energy once again. Gordon Brown had one up in 10 Downing Street and James May wears a Keep Calm T-shirt on the telly - it is suddenly everywhere. The book is packed full of similarly motivational and inspirational quotes, proverbs, mantras and wry truths to help us through the recession, from such wits as Churchill, Disraeli and George Bernard Shaw. Funny, wise and stirring - it is a perfect source of strength to get us all through the coming months.

'A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain' Mark Twain

'It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own' Harry S. Truman

'An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today' Laurence J. Peter

'Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine' Lord Byron

'Better bread with water than cake with trouble' Russian Proverb

Reviews

The best title on offer this year is Keep Calm and Carry On ... There isn't a single uninteresting entry and the range - Cicero, Shakespeare, George W. Bush. Impressive.

—— Daily Express

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

A fascinating read

—— Radio Times

An atomic Dad's Army, McDowall's history of the UK's nuclear civil defence is full of hilarious gems

—— Daily Telegraph

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

Most interesting

—— Times Literary Supplement

An unsettling festive read

—— Soldier

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