‘A remarkable account…that it is ultimately hopeful and uplifting, is down to the utter human decency that the author represents’
Mail on Sunday
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.
REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS:
- Review – When The Dust Settles in the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience – view page 75 here
- Review – When The Dust Settles in The Times
BOOKS BY LUCY EASTHOPE:
- Technologies of recovery: plans, practices and entangled politics in disaster (2013) – Chapter (Awarded the Amsterdamska award as a collection)
- Making Sense of Death and Dying: An Anthology (2018) contributor to a chapter
- The Recovery Myth (2018)
- When The Dust Settles (2022)
- Out of the Shadows: The Role of Social Workers in Disaster (2022) contributor to a chapter
- When This Is Over: Reflections on an Unequal Pandemic (2023) – edited Anthology with Bristol University Press