Beyond Belief

Description

The British Bomb Tests: Australian’s veterans speak out.

In Beyond Belief, Roger Cross and Avon Hudson give a long-ignored voice to the veterans of the British atomic bomb tests conducted in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. Their chilling stories raise many disturbing questions, both about what happened then, and the effects on their lives in the decades that have passed.

Successive British and Australian governments denied their understanding of the dangers of ionising radiation in the 1950s. But the government scientists employed to monitor the tests were given protective clothing. The servicemen were left unprotected, given radiation-measuring devices and exposed to a simulated theatre of nuclear war. They trusted their government and the appointed Safety Committee, only to be left with a tragic legacy for their children and grandchildren.

‘The tone is undeniably; defiantly polemic, but to consign this passionate book to the “conspiracy theory” section is to shelve important, uncomfortable questions such as: were civilians and armed forces personnel deliberately exposed to atomic radiation’?
Chilling but necessary reading.’ – Australian Bookseller and Publisher