Sir Richard Packer, former Permanent Secretary at MAFF, presided over Britain's most momentous political and public health crisis of the late twentieth century--BSE. In this frank account of events, Packer details the facts of the outbreak, how government responded to the crisis, and how the press contributed to widespread public panic. He reveals the awful truth about the lack of information about this new disease and how the decisions taken to protect public health were a combination of informed guesswork and sheer good fortune.