This book examines the murky history of biological warfare, the whole basis of which is one of the most prominent intelligence failures in the history of modern warfare. It describes in narrative fashion the worldwide development of biological weapons from the start of the First World War up until the time of the covert experiments conducted by Porton Down scientists in the late 1950s using the population of much of southern England as guinea-pigs. All major developments in every country with a viable BW program is covered in some depth including the use of anthrax in the First World War by German agents in the USA and South America against horses and feed stocks destined for the allied armies in Europe.We learn that in the 1930s, Japan developed and used biological weapons in Manchuria, which is their only acknowledged use against human targets.During WW2 the USA, Britain and Canada ran a huge program to develop a viable BW weapon (the 4lb anthrax cluster bomb). Experiments with long lasting effects were conducted in remote areas such as Gruinard Island.The Author also reveals that Allied intelligence wrongly convinced themselves that Germany was at an advanced stage of BW development using anthrax and botulinum toxin.All this and more makes for fascinating reading in this ground-breaking expose" of a subject that has been neglected by military historians.