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The Leaky Establishment [Paperback]

David Langford (Author), Terry Pratchett (Introduction)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 2 Jan 2001
"I'd rank this book alongside Michael Frayn's The Tin Men, another neglected classic. I've wanted for years to see it back in print. It is one of those books you end up buying several copies of, because you just have to lend it to friends. It's very funny. It's very real." - from the introduction by Terry Pratchett

Smuggling plutonium out of a nuclear research centre is surprisingly easy. The difficult part is smuggling it back in again ...

The Leaky Establishment is an atomic farce whose author David Langford once worked in the gentle radioactive glow of Britain's nuclear weapons industry, and who hilariously satirises it from the inside. Black comedy overtakes the unfortunate defence scientist hero Roy Tappen when a "harmless" theft of office furniture lands him with his very own doomsday nuclear stockpile at home. Chain reactions of comic escapades follow, with disaster piled on disaster, leading the increasingly desperate Tappen to the borders of science fiction as he seeks a way out of the mess.

Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Big Engine; New edition edition (2 Jan 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1903468000
  • ISBN-13: 978-1903468005
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,244,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's David Langford Page
David Langford
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Product Description

Review

A comic novel with both verbal wit and comedy of situation. -- Mary Gentle, Interzone

A splendid send-up. -- Daily Mail

An agreeable romp. (AWRE News, house journal of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (since renamed), Aldermaston, Berkshire, England) -- AWRE News

An agreeable romp. -- AWRE News, house journal of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment

I'd rank this book alongside Michael Frayn's The Tin Men, another neglected classic. I've wanted for years to see it back in print. It is one of those books you end up buying several copies of, because you just have to lend it to friends. It's very funny. It's very real. -- From the introduction by Terry Pratchett

The Leaky Establishment concerns the trials and tribulations of one Roy Tappen, a scientist at the Nuclear-Utilization Technology Centre at Robinson Heath, who discovers that sneaking the plutonium core of a nuclear warhead out of the centre is easy enough; the problems arise when he tries to sneak it back in. It's either a gloriously absurd farce or a sober record of The Great British System disguised as a gloriously absurd farce: whichever way round it's the kind of book you can give to spouses/partners who can't stand SF. -- Andy Sawyer, British SF Association, Paperback Inferno

From the Publisher

The Leaky Establishment was the first title I signed up for Big Engine. I had read it at university and found it frighteningly funny -- it’s more than just a knockabout farce in the nuclear industry, it’s plausible too, from its opening blurb of genuine British Admiralty bureaucratese (“…it will be seen to that the bottom of each warhead immediately be labelled with the word TOP”) to the closing line. Then I graduated and grew up and moved out into the real world, and found further proof of its reality at every line.

Part of Big Engine’s ideal is to keep the classics, the works that people need to read, in print. This is one such book. Anyone who grew up in the Reagan/Thatcher era can read it and thank their lucky stars they are still here today. Anyone from a younger generation, read it and see what your elders and betters went through …

Ben Jeapes,Big Engine

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
175 of 184 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars NOT a Terry Pratchett book. 22 Aug 2004
By A. Skudder VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
The title of this review say it all really. If you are thinking of buyng this book on the strength of Pratchett's name alone, you should be aware that this is a twenty year old book which has been re-released with an introduction by TP. If you are expecting something co-written by Pratchett, featuring magic and disc-shaped worlds, and that is all you really like, you will be disappointed.

It all smells like a bit of a marketing ploy by the publishers to resurrect an old title, which is a shame really because it is not a bad book, even if it does show its age a bit. I particularly liked the idea of someone playing Space Invaders on a computer which has a printer as its only output. Basically its an old-fashioned farce, based in a nuclear facility, which will strike a chord of recognition with anyone who has worked in the British public sector in any sort of capacity.

The important thing is to judge this book on its own merits, ignoring the red herring of Pratchett's name on the cover.

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88 of 97 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars A good plot badly written 24 April 2002
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In the Introduction Terry Pratchett says that this was a book he wanted to write. It certainly has the usual Pratchett trade marks - characters who get into unlikely but amusing situations, stereotypes of people in high positions but with little common sense and completely mad and unlikely events told in a deadpan fashion. Unfortunately the actual characters are instantly forgetable - I even kept forgetting the name of the 'hero' - and after a while I wasn't really interested in what would happen next. In fact half way through I put it down and read another book before going back to it. I do wish that Pratchett HAD written it, with that plot it would have been a winner. It's made me realise just how good HIS books are when compared to others of the same genre.
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62 of 69 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious (In a terrifying kind of way) 22 Jun 2001
By paulburton@totalise.co.uk
Format:Paperback
Have you ever wondered what life was like inside Britains most secret Nuclear Establishment? Well now you can find out: Langford, himself a former Aldermaston inmate, builds this tale of innocence, incompetance, corruption and sheer bloody mindedness around an unlikely hero, Scientist Roy Tappen. Roy just wants an old filing cabinet for his magazines; Unfortunately the cleaners have left him a little something in the bottom drawer and Roy is now a member of the nuclear club. Much mental effort is expended and beer drunk as he tries to get this particular egg back into the chicken coop without raising the suspicions of the flat footed, yet blindly obstinate, MoD police. All of the old Civil Service types are represented here from the youthful Scientific Officer to the time serving Bureaucrat. All living out their lives in the down at heel surroundings of a leading scientific establishment. The home science experiment is fun too. Langford denies that the fictitious establishment depicted here is not Aldermaston. He is lying. Roy Tappen works in Langford's old Terrapin Hut (a 1950's Portacabin). I know, I knocked it down. The Leaky Establishment has the dubious honour of being the most borrowed book from the Aldermaston library. (And you thought we only read Science Journals)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Worrying but hilarious!
Very easy read, amused me mightily. My only sorrow was that it was finished too soon, hence it only got 4 stars instead of 5!
Published 8 days ago by Ann Woodriff Beirne
4.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Terry!
Alright!!
It might not be written by Terry Pratchett, but thanks to his forward and endorsement of the book, I bought it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Wok
5.0 out of 5 stars By David Langford - NOT Pratchett -( forward by Terry Pratchett!)
This book is a laugh a second while at the same time raising serious issues and making very relevant social statements. Unmissable and very highly recommended.
Published 3 months ago by Jan Glover
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing book
They want 21 words in a review..... but all I can say about this is that it didn't match my expectations.
Published 4 months ago by Cathy.
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read
A good read especially if you like terry pratchett. Arrived on time and good value can highly recommend this purchase
Published 5 months ago by P. Elletson
5.0 out of 5 stars funny and thought provoking
Terry Pratchet says in the intoduction that this is a book that he wishes that he could have written. Whatever, it is a book that I was glad that I had read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jessicariddoch
4.0 out of 5 stars An old friend
Odd that this would pop up as a Pratchett book, then I realised this was a book I read 20 years ago, forwarded by Pratchett, that I really wanted to find again. Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. Bond
5.0 out of 5 stars typical british farce
Oh what a tangled web we weave us British, I wonder how near the truth this all is!!
Great funny well written book
Published 7 months ago by K. Starling
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Book of the week
This book is in the style of a Pratchett, but unfortunately after a while becomes a bit of a predictable story. It may appeal to some but I was a little let down by the end.
Published 9 months ago by Mr. Stephen J. Jackson
4.0 out of 5 stars The Leaky Establishment
Anyone who has been a Civil Servant or worked for the Ministry of Defence will recognise the characters in this book! Read more
Published 19 months ago by Peter A James
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