Death of a Sparrow: terror down under

The story is Fiction. Death of a Sparrow was written after much study of nuclear hazards and technology because the writer had been alarmed when temporarily living near the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant which suffered a partial melt-down, on March 28 1979. It is the story of a farming family in Gollans Valley, New Zealand, who sold up their land to a US company when climate change and drought brought devastation to their farming enterprise. Little did the young Fairbrother family realize that their land would become the site of a nuclear power station as well as a people's park. As time went on, the farmer, Peter Fairbrother, had no choice of employment but to work in the park at the power station, and Jenny, with her science degree, employment in a hospital Laboratory. However, the glamour of living in the Hutt Valley, in a posh apartment, given to them by the US company, began to wear off. Anger at the deception by the US company, Hammer Burton, and the national anger at having a nuclear power station foisted upon their nuclear-free country by the US bureaucracy in league with a national government, caused an uprising of antagonism toward the Government and also the Fairbrothers.The marriage fell apart and Sammy, the child, stayed in Jenny's care, while Peter's health and character came under the influence of a new group of so-called friends with whom he worked, while living apart from his family. One 'friend' was an Arabian, intent on revenge toward the United States and in a very intoxicated moment, Peter agreed to carry out a prank designed to upset the running of the power station. The result was so catastrophic that the Fairbrother family, along with thousands of citizens, became refugees in their own country.