My aunt Lorna was the official historian at the UK Atomic Energy Authority for many years. She was still very with it until a couple of weeks before her death, aged 98, in March 2014. After her death, a memorial was held for her at the fusion research centre at Culham. It was attended by many UKAEA bigwigs, and many of Lorna’s relatives – including me.

She had had several books published, mostly on the history of the nuclear industry. Here are some extracts from My Short Century, her memoirs ranging from her childhood in rural poverty to her role as the Atomic Energy Authority’s official historian, and her obituaries in the Guardian and the Telegraph. I’m particularly impressed that the Telegraph finished their piece thus: “Lorna Arnold’s books were well-received on both sides of the nuclear debate because she had concentrated on description and explanation and tried to avoid taking sides. In fact, as she admitted in her memoir, she was strongly opposed both to nuclear weapons and to the civil use of nuclear power.”