The examination of the most mysterious episode in recent British political history, by a renowned investigative journalist. The death of Dr David Kelly in 2003 is one of the the strangest events in the 21st century. This scrupulous scientist, an expert on weapons of mass destruction, was caught up in the rush to war in Iraq and in the pressure of those around Tony Blair to provide evidence that Saddam Hussein was producing chemical weapons. Kelly seemed to have tipped into sudden depression when he was outed as a source by Andrew Gilligan. Case closed, for Blair, Alastair Campbell and the intelligence agencies. But the circumstances of his death are replete with disquieting questions – every detail, from his motives to the method of his death, his body's discovery and the way in which the state investigated his demise, seems on close examination not to make sense. There was never an inquest into his death, which would have allowed medical and other evidence to be carefully interrogated. In this painstaking and levelheaded book, Miles Goslett shows why we should be deeply sceptical of the official narrative and reminds us of the desperate measures those in power resorted to in those feverish summer months of 2003.
