The Observer

The following extract is of the first three chapters of my book.

Set against the backdrop of a hypothetical global nuclear conflict at the beginning of the 1980s, The Observer follows Dennis, a member of the UK Royal Observer Corp, a military voluntary civil defence organisation whose wartime job was to monitor nuclear explosions and gather data for fallout predictions.

With war imminent as the Soviets and the USA battle in the Middle East, the story opens a few days before hostilities break out and with the UK descending into chaos as marshal law, road blocks and riots dominate the landscape.

Between shifts in his bunker, Dennis battles with life in pre-war Britain as well as a conflict of opinion with a wife who is determined that family should come before duty. Lost in the regret of boredom and estrangement from his brother and now deceased father, Dennis disagrees.
The terrifying screech of the sirens sound as the world is plunged into nuclear war. Now Dennis fulfils his duty alongside his two companions, logging explosions within their vicinity.

Disillusioned by the reality of war, his companions protest as Dennis reports every explosion to Group Control until it too is destroyed, leaving them with no further role to fulfil. Each person now faces their own demons as they wait for the fallout to clear. Dennis in particular has to fight his history of childhood failure.

One month later Dennis emerges alone from the bunker, riddled with guilt as to why he abandoned his wife and child at such a critical time.

Determined to find his family, Dennis travels across the ravaged countryside. He returns to his village to find it has been evacuated and with evidence that even this far from the cities the effect of blasts has left its mark.