Einstein and the Bomb

The bizarre story of how Professor Albert Einstein came to live in a field in Norfolk for several weeks in 1933 is part of the new Netflix docudrama which is getting a lot of coverage in the press and radio (featured on Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday).

The Netflix film combines archive footage with dramatic reconstruction to try and explain why Einstein, a pacifist, came to encourage Roosevelt to invest in the Manhattan project to develop a nuclear weapon.  Showing clips of the rise of Hitler and the persecution of Jews, we then find Einstein staying in a hut in a field in north Norfolk, protected by two young women wielding shotguns, although it doesn’t really explain how he got there and what role his host, Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson of Cromer, played in getting him out of Germany.  It’s certainly an interesting film, and worth watching, although I found it rather disjointed and the acting a little wooden.

To get the full story of Einstein’s arrival in Norfolk, you need to read Stuart McLaren’s book, Saving Einstein: When Norfolk Hid a Genius.  And we also have two other books about Locker-Lampson, who was a real Boy’s Own character: Newhaven Court tells the story of his house in Cromer and its colourful inhabitants and visitors, while The Baker Brothers is the extraordinary tale of how Locker-Lampson established a small private army equipped with armoured cars to fight on the Russian front during the first world war.