SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE PRIZE 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022 THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR A GUARDIAN BEST POLITICS BOOK OF THE YEAR A TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *Revised and updated edition with new chapter reflecting on the impact of Covid-19 two years on, and what come next* Did the UK government really 'follow the science' throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, as it claims? As head of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar was one of the first people in the world to hear about a mysterious new disease in China - and to learn it could readily spread between people. A member of the SAGE emergency committee, Farrar was a key figure in both the UK and the World Health Organization at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic amid great uncertainty, fast-moving situations and missed opportunities. Spike is his widely acclaimed inside story. His account casts light on the UK government's claims to be 'following the science' and is informed not just by Farrar's views but by interviews with other top scientists and political figures.

Prizes

Short-listed for Orwell Prize 2022 (UK),Short-listed for Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2022 (UK)

An explosive book about what he witnessed inside government * The Times *
Urgent and fascinating ... We need memoirs like these, and we need to learn what they are telling us. Quickly. -- Debora Mackenzie * Guardian *
Spike blends scientific fact with gripping storytelling ... a brutally honest, and not particularly flattering, portrayal of the government's response to the pandemic * Reader's Digest *
Farrar's riveting "inside story" of his efforts to warn the world of the looming pandemic and devise countermeasures ... a searing indictment of the government's serial failures to follow the science. -- Mark Honigsbaum * Observer *
The best first-hand account of the first weeks of the pandemic published to date. The passages on the genetic code being smuggled out of China are thrilling and insights into the way Sage and Downing Street operated in those early days are fascinating ... it is refreshingly undiplomatic, honest and brutal in its assessment. -- Ben Spencer * Sunday Times *
Spike - a scientist's version of Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year - is a necessary insider's account of how the pandemic was, and should have been, handled ... It is a closely observed and deeply analysed case study of the intersection between science and politics. Beware of politicians claiming to be following the science. There are lessons to be learnt as to how to handle the next pandemic when it comes. Farrar lays them out. The world needs to take heed. -- Michael Marmot * Financial Times *
A gripping account of the murky interplay between science, medicine, politics, and the media while COVID-19 ravaged the globe ... Farrar brings the insider's access, Ahuja the sense of pace and plot that makes an unfolding public health crisis read like a John le Carré spy thriller -- Rachel Clarke * Lancet *
Reads like a thriller ... tells how the news of Covid-19 first reached the world's scientists, how the pandemic unfolded and how governments reacted and failed to cope -- Joan Bakewell * New Statesman Books of the Year *
A frank inside account, grippingly written * Times Science Book of the Year *
As gripping as a thriller ... Combining candour about what the scientists got wrong with horror stories about the chaos inside Downing Street, it concludes with a fascinating examination of why the argument for a lockdown last autumn was lost ... An important account of how judgment can get clouded in a crisis -- Gaby Hinsliff * Guardian *

Jeremy Farrar is Director of the Wellcome Trust and, as an expert on infectious disease, is a member of the UK government's SAGE committee on Covid-19. He was one of the first people in the world to know about and alert the global community to Covid-19. He will be directing his royalties from SPIKE to charity. Anjana Ahuja is the Financial Times science columnist and a freelance writer who has covered the coronavirus outbreak extensively since its beginnings in January 2020. She holds a PhD from Imperial College London.