Sixty Days to Live

Before the vogue of apocalyptic fiction really took off, in 1932 Dennis Wheatley researched and imagined a party of would-be survivors in the glow of a pending comet on course to collide with planet earth. Astronomers could see it coming, civilians could slowly feel the effect of its rays tuning into their baser violent or passionate instincts, but what action would the government take amongst the rumours in such uncertainty? Evacuate the cities under martial law and risk national panic and chaos, or simply deny knowledge to maintain order in the hope that scientific predictions would prove false? For millionaire Sam Curry, and his young wife and Hollywood starlet, Lavina, on learning of the prediction that they may have only sixty days to enjoy their new marriage, money is no object in taking measures to ensure their survival. Over dinner with a select group of family and friends, they decide a gyroscopic ark may see them through any eventualities, and go about ordering in materials without raising suspicion, and trying to live a normal life until the potential moment of impact grew near. But could they all be trusted to keep themselves and the ark safe from a nation already starting to panic, loot and riot? And if they are to survive, what state will the planet be left in? Will the millions of corpses decay into airborne disease that would wipe out anyone left? Where and how will they settle to create a new civilisation? When nothing is certain and nothing remains, will any of the survivors be able to survive each other?