The Most Explosive Love Story Ever: Transatlantic Nuclear Discourse

Abstract

A famous satirical image, a spoof film poster for Gone with the Wind, depicts Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan embroiled in the “most explosive love story ever”, shadowed by a mushroom cloud. Controversial figures, their Cold War policies and socio-economic reforms provoked debate on both sides of the Atlantic, both about nuclear weapons and other issues. This chapter discusses the nuclear transatlantic in 1980s literature. It finds depictions of the relations between Britain and the United States in novels by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, David Graham, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and James Thackara, and also explores how geopolitical forces refashioning the transatlantic relationship were more broadly and subtly manifested in the decade’s literature.