Once we are warned of a nuclear attack, we prepare to launch,’ former secretary of defence William Perry tells us. ‘This is policy. We do not wait.’ Now, imagine that this is really happening. ‘Speaking in a normal tone, the president reads the nuclear launch codes out loud.’ As stated in the acknowledgments, ‘Nuclear war is insane’. It’s also a complex array of people and politics operating in a global system with a fascinating historical context.

Nuclear War is structured as a ‘bolt out of the blue’ story organised into well-paced, intriguing yet terrifying dramatic segments of 24 minutes; surreal space/time moments of narrative speculation and decisions as the minutes tick. It’s a compelling yet shocking moment-by-moment account of an intercontinental ballistic missile attack from launch, detection, response, impact, and aftermath. The confronting drama intersperses history and daily-life snapshots with detailed notes on protocols and procedures; bunkers and B-52 bombers.

This book is well paced, informative, and easy to read with regular juxtaposition of ideas and information to emphasise a horrific contrast between subjective, individual human experiences and objective indifference of broader political, military and scientific perspectives. Researching, reporting, and writing a book of this nature requires enormous insight from authoritative sources.

It’s reassuring and horrifying that this book features 75 pages of acknowledgments and notes. This is an important and enlightening book. Quite confronting and dismal. Prime yourself before reading. Maybe find a bunker.

Reviewed by Mark Parry