The classic novel of the Cold War. There are well-meaning Ban-the-Bomb types, most of whom are destined for labour camps or death when the People's Republic of Britain is eventually established, with the forceful help of an interim government's Russian friends. The horrifying aspect of the book, as Fitzgibbons subtly points out, is that the steps it charts, and the inhuman cruelties with which it ends, are not that far removed from the actual experiences of several countries which Russia brought within its orbit after 1945. It is a chilling reminder of what might have been and what might yet be.