The Radioactive General - And Other Stories

The Radioactive General (1959) – Robert Standish
Peter Davies | ISBN: None
Condition: Very Good | Sold by Crappy Old Books

First Edition

Generals are traditionally dangerous people. Give one a uniform, a collection of medals, several thousand soldiers and a sufficiently large map, and there’s an excellent chance somebody will end up having a thoroughly unpleasant afternoon. But a radioactive general? Now that’s an entirely different proposition. The ordinary military establishment has enough trouble controlling its senior officers without having to worry about whether they’re emitting hazardous quantities of radiation.

Welcome to The Radioactive General, Robert Standish’s intriguingly titled 1959 novel, a literary curiosity from an age when the atomic bomb had transformed international politics, nuclear annihilation had become a perfectly reasonable subject for dinner-table conversation, and humanity was beginning to suspect that scientific progress might have certain unfortunate side effects.

The late 1950s were a particularly splendid period for anxiety. The Second World War was over, but the Cold War had ensured that peace remained a somewhat theoretical concept. The Americans and Soviets were busily accumulating enough nuclear weapons to make the continued existence of civilisation seem like an administrative oversight, while ordinary citizens were encouraged to remain calm, build shelters and take comfort in the apparent wisdom of their political leaders.

Into this atmosphere comes Standish’s wonderfully provocative title, combining two of the twentieth century’s most alarming inventions: the modern military commander and the nuclear age. One is accustomed to following orders, the other to behaving according to the laws of physics, and neither is particularly interested in negotiating.

Robert Standish was a British novelist whose writing career encompassed a variety of subjects and settings. His work belongs to a generation of popular fiction in which storytelling could engage with the enormous political, technological and social changes reshaping the post-war world, often with a keen appreciation of humanity’s remarkable capacity for making its own difficulties considerably worse.

There is something irresistible about books from this period. Their original readers inhabited a world in which the mushroom cloud was an instantly recognisable symbol, nuclear technology promised both unlimited electricity and unlimited destruction, and the future seemed likely to involve either extraordinary prosperity or the complete disappearance of everything familiar. Occasionally both were promised in the same newspaper.

As a physical object, this 1959 Peter Davies edition is also a pleasing survivor from an era of traditional British publishing, when books were produced to be read, kept and occasionally passed down through generations rather than replaced by a software update.

Offered in Very Good condition by Crappy Old Books, this copy will appeal to collectors of mid-century British fiction, enthusiasts of Cold War-era literature and anyone attracted to wonderfully unusual titles that practically demand investigation.

A vintage literary curiosity from the age of fallout shelters, military brinkmanship and atomic uncertainty.

And whatever the general’s particular difficulties might be, one suspects that being radioactive is unlikely to improve his prospects of receiving a warm welcome at the off

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