Reviews

I picked this up hoping to learn more about disaster management as a career, and this definitely helped me with that, along with generally being an engaging and thought provoking read. It helps that her career has involved working on many disasters most people in the UK will have heard of and probably lived through, making this a relatable read which reminded me at times of my own memories of how I first heard about each disaster. This was also unexpectedly humerous (in a gallows humour kind of way) as her life contained a really astounding number of coincidences, which I couldn't resist reading out to my husband. I learnt about so many roles behind the scenes that I had never thought about before, and it was really interesting to hear about all the planning that goes on, and also the political side of the recent shift to 'optics-focussed' response. Even while she shows the darker side of her career, I personally found this memoir hopeful and inspiring, although I can understand that might not be the case for all!

scytmo's review

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5.0

This book is absolutely compelling, and I finished it within 24 hours. Lucy Easthope writes with such warmth and humanity, while tackling death and loss in high profile disasters that I was already familiar with. The importance of expertise such that Lucy has in disaster recovery is so clearly communicated - and is something I hadn't previously considered. I suppose it's unsurprising that I hadn't considered this before, given the uphill struggle that Lucy describes in the book time and time again, as she tries to put processes and procedures in place in government, and other official contexts, that will ease the lives of victims friends, families and communities for years to come. It is heartbreaking towards the end of the book to see that some of the progress that Lucy made earlier in her career has been eroded by cuts from successive governments - but Lucy's warmth and hope shine through, throughout the book. Thoroughly recommended.

vickyconnelly's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

What an amazing book. As someone with a Risk masters I found this incredibly interesting to see the link between studies and practicality, to see there is a fight to maintain our humanity in times of disaster.
I also did my undergraduate at University of Dundee so really loved its inclusion.