In partnership with EA Festival.

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Henry Becquerel’s accidental discovery, in Paris in 1896, of a faint smudge on a photographic plate sparked a chain of discoveries which would unleash the atomic age.

Destroyer of Worlds is the story of how pursuit of this hidden source of nuclear power, which began innocently and collaboratively, was overwhelmed by the politics of the 1930s, and following devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened the way to a still more terrible possibility: a thermonuclear bomb, the so-called “backyard weapon”, that could destroy all life on earth – from anywhere.

The story spans decades and continents, moving from Becquerel to Ernest Rutherford, the Cambridge-based, New Zealand scientist who first split the atom, expands to include Enrico Fermi in Rome, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in Berlin and the Joliot-Curies in Paris, leading to the appearance of Robert Oppenheimer before climaxing with increasingly horrifying developments in the USA and USSR. The roles of three remarkable women – Lise Meitner, Ida Noddack and Irene Curie – are re-evaluated, and there are new insights into the work of Ettore Majorana, Fermi’s mercurial but brilliant assistant, who mysteriously disappeared in 1938, possibly after foreseeing the explosive power of nuclear energy. Above all, this is a story of how knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships, an indeed by chance, in a remarkable way.

Frank Close

Professor Frank Close OBE is a physicist, broadcaster and author. He has been Head of Communications at CERN, and is now Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College. He won the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday Prize in 2013 for Excellence in Science Communication and the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal in 1996. He is the only professional scientist to have won the British Science Writers Prize on three occasions. He has published over 200 research papers in particle physics, and 20 books. June 10th sees the publication of his newest book, Destroyer of Worlds, the first full history of our search for nuclear power and the characters and minds behind it, from a faint smudge on a photographic plate in 1896 to the H Bomb with the power to destroy all life on earth, all in just 70 years.

 

Rachel Lloyd

Rachel Lloyd  is co-host of the Always Take Notes podcast as well as the co-editor of Always Take Notes: Advice From Some Of The World’s Greatest Writers (2023). Rachel Lloyd is Deputy Culture Editor at The Economist. As well as overseeing the section’s digital output, she contributes articles to the newspaper, app and website, chiefly about books, television and film. In 2021 she was nominated for Young Journalist of the Year by the Society of Editors.

 

Simon Akam

Simon Akam co-hosts the writing podcast Always Take Notes with Rachel Lloyd and is a British magazine journalist and author. His writing has appeared in many top media including the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Simon’s first book, The Changing of the Guard – the British Army since 9/11, was published in 2021 and won the Templer First Book Prize, in addition to being selected by the Times Literary Supplement as a Book of the Year. Simon’s second book, Snowlines, will be published in 2026.

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EA Festival is back on the beautiful grounds of Hedingham Castle, located on the border of Essex and Suffolk in the charming village of Castle Hedingham. With a star-studded line-up, it will be a dazzling smorgasbord of subjects – from AI and longevity to Christianity and art fraud. We are delighted to be partnering with EA Festival on these fabulous events.

Visit eafestival.com for EA Festival 2025 Programme, Line-up and to book tickets.