Easthope understood the importance of preserving these items for grieving relatives, and now she was doing it for herself. A frank and thought provoking look at the logistics of disaster planning by one of the UK’s top consultants.

I respect the authors work and personal journey, and I found new respect for the sacrifices people in this field bring. I can understand the professional and national pride, but other similar units from other countries have their leanings and achievements too. At an early age, Arnold forged the mental tools to build the ladder out of the poverty and narrow-mindedness of his rural Austrian hometown, tools he used to add rung after rung from there. In a simultaneously heart-breaking and hilarious scene (as DisasterHusband is still very much alive), she recounts how she scooped the plastic bag with her husbands bloody shoes and clothes out of the medical waste bin in hospital. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

She has also been involved in some of the disasters as a private person, who just happened to be there. The story starts in world war, moving onto Hillsborough, Chernobyl, 9/11, and finishing with the pandemic.

and ‘We also have a tendency to notice the bad coincidences but not the infinite number of good coincidences that happen in equal magnitude to us every day. Disaster planning is all it sounds but planning also involves learning from the aftermath and Easthope takes us through the trauma and sensitivity required of her role. It was such an eye opening read and at times incredibly frustrating, when you could see that there was a better way of doing something but that those with the authority to make changes refused to listen. Inevitably, there are sections that are gruesome to read, but her account is never less than “riveting”.Instead of being asked about what we thought survivors might need in any given scenario or how a public health message might be received, we were now being asked to judge whether we thought the prime minister would be able to weather the storm or have to resign.