A brief biography of Dorothy McKibbon, who ran the Santa Fe office of the Manhattan Project. McKibbon wasn't a scientist or a soldier; she didn't live in Los Alamos. In many ways she was a step removed from the action there, yet still a fundamental part of it: sending scientists and their families up to the mesa, helping them settle in to life in New Mexico.

The Manhattan Project is an interest of mine, and I've read a number of books on it. Some of them are very good indeed, yet the reason I like this book so much is that it's quite unlike those others. It doesn't go into the science; it doesn't centre around the scientists; it's not actually all that in depth. What it does do is paint an attractive picture of a normal woman who ended up working an extraordinary job. Not what she expected when she was offered a position as secretary, that's for sure! But her very normality is what makes her appealing. I got a real sense of personality here, is what I'm saying - and a very different perspective to the more usual sort of MP biography. And I like biographies that give different perspectives, they tend to help round out history in general I think.