A new series on former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a man born in the Victorian era who led Britain into her thermonuclear age and through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This episode starts with his horrible experiences in the trenches and takes us up to his 1954 appointment as Defence Secretary, but we take in Greek tragedy, adultery, plane crashes and a bit of Ronnie Kray on the way.

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The books I quote from today are:

• Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan, by D.R. Thorpe
• Churchill and the Bomb, by Kevin Ruane
• The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years, by Harold Macmillan

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This week, Jim retreats into daydreams, and Hilda dishes out hard truths at the kitchen sink. Which one is best equipped to face the coming horror: the dreamer or the realist?

PS I left one of my puppy's snores in the recording as it was cute. I used to sometimes do this with Bomba's snores, so here is one of Gadget's.

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The chart-topping 1983 hit about nuclear war - even though the band insisted it was no such thing!

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Lions and tigers and bears? Oh my! We see that everything becomes a threat after nuclear war. And what is that strange scent hanging in the air?

Also, a new BONUS EPISODE has been released for patrons, this one about Ronald Reagan and the biblical prophecy of Armageddon. Did Reagan believe it? Did he think the end of the world, in the form of nuclear war, was inevitable? Join us for £3 a month and get all bonus episodes here www.patreon.com/atomichobo

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The weird post-nuclear novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz.

We will continue our series on the French civil defence booklet next week. I just couldn't resist interrupting my own schedule with an episode on this mind-bending novel.

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I have the 1965 French civil defence booklet, and you can view it on Patreon here. I've made it free to read, but do consider subscribing for more content and extra pod episodes!

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We will examine the booklet next week - it has been translated for me - but this week we start with an introductory look at why France decided to go nuclear.

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How will Germany alert its population to a nuclear attack? And why isn't the British warning system as good as theirs?

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