Tsunamis, earthquakes, monsoon floods,
swine flu, international terrorism - life seems
to get more dangerous by the day.
Or does it ?
Disaster historian John Withington has
made a study of the worst things that have happened on earth from the dawn of time to the present day. The natural catastrophes - earthquakes, storms, floods, famines and diseases. The accidents - fires, explosions, shipwrecks, air and train crashes. And the disasters created deliberately by man - wars, invasions, massacres, riots and terrorism.
John Withington
A former radio and television reporter, John has spent the last decade researching and writing about disasters from Noah's flood to the tsunamis and suicide bombs of the present day.
No one is better placed to assess the importance
of an individual disaster and put it into a historical context.
"Britain has been buffeted by almost every imaginable kind of disaster - not just fires and famines but also earthquakes and tsunamis ", says John Withington.
