Mag - you've reminded me of Shute's On The Beach. I read that one just before the Cuban Missile Crisis and spent a number of years afterward, when I had my children, scared stiff of nuclear war. That was one very powerful book! The thing it taught me,in time, was that there are two kinds of worry, those you can do something about, so do it, and those you can't do anything about, so why worry?

Amos - I will have to try Brief History again - do you think it made any real difference to your life? I have a friend who insists that it is required reading, but I'm not sure that I believe him!