Gareth Williams: The Impossible Bomb

Before the Manhattan Project, Britain had its own top-secret race to build the atomic bomb. In The Impossible Bomb, Gareth Williams uncovers the extraordinary story of ‘Tube Alloys’, the British nuclear programme established in 1940, and the brilliant scientists at its heart.

Six physicists drove this remarkable effort: two Nobel Prize winners, three Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and a hot-tempered Australian. Their names may now be largely forgotten, but their pioneering work changed the course of history. Without Tube Alloys, the American Manhattan Project could never have succeeded and no atomic bombs could have been produced during the Second World War.

Blending meticulous research with the pace of a thriller, Williams reveals the crucial British contribution to the birth of nuclear weapons – and why it was subsequently written out of history