The Leaky Establishment

This hilarious tale of misplaced nuclear warheads is just so clever. The preface by Terry Pratchett claims that he wishes he had written it, and I agree that it appeals to the same audience but I don't think Pratchett would have approached the humour with quite such a delicate touch.

This highly unlikely comic novel about a fictional nuclear weapons research establishment which bears no resemblence whatsoever to AWRE Aldermaston, where the author once worked, no sirree, is one of the little-known gems of British humourous writing. Sadly, its publishing history shows why it remains a little-known gem. Its UK paperback edition was difficult to find, and the copy I ordered through W.H.Smith on publication never materialised; and its most recent incarnation, as a trade paperback from a UK small publisher, was marred by that publisher promptly going out of business.

This is a shame, because Dave Langford's comic writing deserves to be better known outside the circle of enthusiasts who have known about his talent for show more years. This novel was built out of a number of articles Langford wrote over a number of years relating funny stories from his time in the British nuclear weapons community, and indeed Langford complains that the episodes that people think are the most ridiculous, farcical and unlikely incidents are the ones that are actually true - and as a one-time career bureaucrat in the British Civil Service, I can confirm their likeliness, as I had similar, though generally less funny, experiences myself in a far less critical area of Government business...

The plot is simple; a nuclear scientist buys a surplus filing cabinet from his workplace, only to find that a colleague has popped a nuclear warhead core into the bottom drawer for safe keeping whilst he goes to the pub. The problem then is how to smuggle a nuclear warhead INTO a high-security base. Eventually, the solution involves the ultimate piece of swords-into-ploughshares alternative technology..

In case anyone worries about national security, this novel was, of necessity, vetted by Ministry of Defence security staff before publication. Their opinions are not recorded.

I possess a rare unsigned copy... show less

Rumour has it this was the most checked out book in the AWE Aldermaston Site Library. I couldn't possibly comment on that, but this jolly romp through the vagaries of the British Civil Service, the Research Establishments and Ministry of Defence does have a lot to commend it. Somewhat reminiscent of Tom Sharpe, or Douglas Adams, where one can keep a warhead in your desk drawer but woe betide you if you have exceeded the regulation number of paperclips in your possession. David Langford's sharp eye and easy style deserves to be better known. Perhaps there is a good reason he isn't...

Many times, and quite effusively, Terry Pratchett mentions this book in his sort of autobiography, "A Slip of the Keyboard." In addition, Terry Pratchett wrote the forward to this edition of this book. And having read both of those as well as this book, it is clear that Sir Terry Pratchett is a very British writer. This book is a very British take on the activities of workers at a nuclear research station in England during the 1960s. It is not that the activities of the workers could only have happened in Britain, but rather, things like the emphasis on which activities are important and which trivial, and definitely which are humorous, could only have been chosen by a very British writer.

Fun little romp with nukes.

kat hamna i skåpet. Nu blir problemet att smuggla tillbaka den, vilket blir markant svårare av de nya detektorer som installerats och en ständig, pervers otur.

Det hela är en ganska klassisk brittisk fars, med ständigt nya komplikationer, chefer som ständigt sparkar neråt och en huvudperson som tar till allt vildare planer och allt grövre lögner för att klara sig ur de situationer som de leder till, eller bara de tämligen oberoende klavertramp som kommer av ett alltför utvecklat sinne för sarkasm. Det är kanske inte en direkt vidräkning med allt som har med atomvapen att göra, även om man inte direkt känner sig säker med att någon av personerna där borde få syssla med sådant.

Mitt största problem med boken vara show more snarast att jag hade svårt för Tappen: visst känner jag igen mig och en del kollegor i vissa drag, men den typ av konstant humoristiskt överhetstrots och hybris som tillsammans med överdriver alkoholberoende tycks vara hans främsta kännetecken må vara nödvändiga för handlingen, men de fungerar bättre som drag hos bifigurer än protagonister. Komedin är vanligen välfunnen, men snarare i de små scenerna snarare än den stora farsen, och det känns som denna hade behövts skruvats upp något varv till innan klimax.

Nåväl, nukleära komedier är inte alltför vanliga, och jag skall nog i alla fall höra med kollegor om det är någon som är intresserad. I alla fall de jag kan känna mig säker på inte skulle bli alltför inspirerade … show less