Writing Eating Babies was a real shock for me - I just didn’t know where that story came from.
Here I’ve tried to work backwards - to find out a bit more about the war.
The trouble is that anyone who was capable of explaining it is probably dead by now.
And those still alive have only got their own personal experiences to call upon.
Still, here goes…
Winter Kills
I was in the basement with Carla when the bombs exploded. Or, should I say, one of the bombs.
I don’t think anyone knows how many bombs were detonated that day.
I don’t think that anyone expected that the five hour war would totally change the way the world worked.
I don’t think that anyone realised that when the radios and telephones stop working, when the hospitals fill up and the drugs run out, when the food runs out…. well then, anyone with a gun becomes a warlord.
Yes, we all saw pictures of the run up to it on the TV. I guess none of us thought that it would go so far. But that was Mogadishu and Somalia, and Iraq and Iran.
It’s different when it’s Basingstoke and Brighton. It really is.
And five hours is all it took. From the chemical bombs in London to the suicide nukes in the States - the world didn’t die from nuclear fallout, just the total breakdown of communication and supply chains.
To find out what happened next you’ll need to buy a copy of Different Roads – available from Lulu.com from 1st August 2011.
