When the Dust Settles: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller

Description

'An essential, uplifting read, brimming with humanity, humility and humour' PROFESSOR DAME SUE BLACK Lucy Easthope lives with disaster every day. When a plane crashes, a bomb explodes, a city floods or a pandemic begins, she's the one they call. Lucy is a world-leading authority on recovering from disaster. She has been at the centre of the most seismic events of the last few decades, advising on everything from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami to the 7/7 bombings, the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, the Grenfell fire and the Covid-19 pandemic. In every catastrophe, Lucy is there to pick up the pieces and prepare for the next one. She holds governments to account, helps communities rally together, returns personal possessions to families, and holds the hands of the survivors. In her moving memoir she reveals what happens in the aftermath and explores how we pick up and rebuild with strength and perseverance. She takes us behind the police tape to scenes of destruction and chaos, introducing us to victims and their families, but also to the government briefing rooms and bunkers, where confusion and stale biscuits can reign supreme. Telling her own personal story, Lucy looks back at a life spent on the edges of disaster, from a Liverpudlian childhood steeped in the Hillsborough tragedy to the many losses and loves of her career. With wisdom, resilience and candour, When the Dust Settles lifts us up by showing that humanity, hope and humour can - and must - be found on the darkest days.

Lucy Easthope is the UK's leading authority on recovering from disaster. She has been an advisor for nearly every major disaster of the past two decades, including the 2004 tsunami, 9/11, the Salisbury poisonings, Grenfell, the Covid-19 pandemic and most recently the war in Ukraine. She challenges others to think differently about what comes next after tragic events, and how to plan for future ones. Lucy grew up in Liverpool and has a degree in law, a PhD in medicine and a Masters in risk, crisis and disaster management. She is a Professor in Practice of Risk and Hazard at the University of Durham, a Fellow in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and a Research Associate at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University, New Zealand.

Never less than reassuringly humane... She shows and tells and, vitally, cares. * Telegraph * An unlikely superhero... this gripping memoir is full of compassion. A remarkable insight into the decisions involved in disaster planning. * Sunday Times * Easthope, whether she knows it or not, is that rare thing, a genuine philosopher thinking through what she is actually doing in the mitigation of human suffering. * New Statesman * The disasters recalled here often read like short stories, each of them filled with high drama, surreal twists and mysteries to be solved. * Guardian * 'A remarkable account...This should be a dark and depressing read; that it isn't, that it is ultimately hopeful and uplifting, is down to the utter human decency that the author represents' * Mail on Sunday * An essential, uplifting read, brimming with humanity, humility and humour. * Sue Black * An entirely unique vision of the human experience * Irish Times * Candid, unsettling and darkly funny * Sunday Post * Poignant, funny, analytical and profoundly humane * Perspective Magazine * Dauntless and forthright * TLS * Deeply humane, occasionally unsettling, and strangely uplifting * Irish Business Post * A book of horror and hope, written with rare humanity. * John Sutherland * When the Dust Settles taught me is that all experiences are of value... Easthope shows us how perfection and imperfection are woven together. Everything is flawed. Yet there is also hope despite the flaws. * Rachel Kelly * Her sensitive and profoundly moral book explores how human beings can preserve their resilience and live with loss. * New Statesman * Rewrites your perceptions of the disasters and wars of our lifetime with vivid details and vignettes... laced with humanity and decency. A literary memento which honours the messy truth of life.' * The Critic * An inspiring memoir. Easthope advises, supports and helps to rebuild lives. * Yorkshire Post * A riveting no-nonsense memoir that pulls back the curtains on your worst fears and shows you that someone, somewhere, will always truly care. * Jenny Colgan * Outstanding... a graphic but deeply humane account of what drew her to take on such work, and how she steels herself to tackle the worst of human scenarios. * The Bookseller *