Bomb culture

Hugh Beach and Nadine Gurr’s Flattering the Passions is a
magnificently objective discussion of the development of the atomic bomb,
Britain’s part in it, and the continuing debate about the so-called nuclear
deterrent. Britain keeps the bomb because of a nostalgic desire to appear to be
a world power they say, adding a plan for international nuclear disarmament.
Sadly, the book’s production is irritatingly amateurish. Published by I. B.
Tauris, £29.50, ISBN 1860641687.