What do you think?
Rate this book
Suffer the Children: The Story of Thalidomide
Thalidomide was hailed as a wonder drug. A tranquilizer that was to be aggressively marketed as non-toxic, free from side-effects safe even for pregnant women. Extensively researched by The Sunday Times Insight Team, here for the first time is the full story of this harmless drug and its dreadful consequences, and of how the parents overcame the formidable obstacles placed in their way to secure a just settlement for their children.
This is an angry story of greed and indifference, of incompetence and evasion - but it is also a story of great courage and determination - and finally it is a story that is an awful warning, and one that we ignore at our peril.
This is an angry story of greed and indifference, of incompetence and evasion - but it is also a story of great courage and determination - and finally it is a story that is an awful warning, and one that we ignore at our peril.
- GenresNonfiction
396 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
161 people want to read
About the author
Phillip Knightley
22 books20 followersPhillip Knightley was a special correspondent for The Sunday Times for 20 years (1965-85) and one of the leaders of its Insight investigative team. He was twice named Journalist of the Year (1980 and 1988) in the British Press Awards. He and John Pilger are the only journalists ever to have won it twice.
He was also Granada Reporter of the Year (1980), Colour Magazine Writer of the Year (1982), holder of the Chef and Brewer Crime Writer’s award (1983), and the Overseas Press Club of America award for the best book on foreign affairs in 1975 (The First Casualty).
He has lectured on journalism, law, and war at the National Press Club, Canberra, ACT; the Senate, Canberra, ACT; City University, London; Manchester University, Queen Elizabeth College Oxford, Penn State, UCLA, Stanford University, California; the Inner Temple, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He is a patron of the C.W. Bean Foundation, Canberra ACT.
His two main professional interests have been war reporting and propaganda and espionage. In more than 30 years of writing about espionage he has met most of the spy chiefs of most of the major intelligence services in the world. He dined with Sir Maurice Oldfireld, head of MI6. He lunched with Sir Dick White, head of MI5 and MI6. He corresponded with both. He lunched with Harry Rositzke, head of the CIA’s Soviet bloc division. He lunched with Lyman Kirkpatrick, the CIA’s Inspector-General. He dined with Leonid Shebarshin, head of the KGB. He lunched with Sergei Kondrashov, chief of KGB counter-intelligence. He had drinks with Markus Wolf, head of East German intelligence. He spent one week in Moscow interviewing the notorious British traitor, Kim Philby. He helped KGB general Oleg Kalugin write the outline for his book. He has met dozens of officers and agents from all sides and has written many articles on espionage. Few writers today have his depth of knowledge of the international intelligence community.
Phillip reviews non-fiction books for The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Independent (London) and The Australian’s Review of Books and The Age (Australia). He was a judge for Canada’s Lionel Gelber Prize, the world’s biggest for the best book on international relations. He is European representative of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Washington DC.
He is involved in the the Indian literary and publishing scene and has written columns for several leading Indian newspapers and magazines.
He presented the war reporting documentary to mark the 30th anniversary of This Week; a half-hour documentary on truth for schools’ television; has reviewed the papers for BBC Breakfast TV and many What the Papers Say. He has appeared in many documentaries in Britain, Canada and Australia. He is a judge for Canada’s Lionel Gelber Prize for the year’s best book on international relations ($50,000). He is on the management committee of The Society of Authors, London.
Phillip was born in Australia but has worked most of his life in Britain. He now divides his time between Britain, Australia and India. He is married with three grown-up children and relaxes by playing tennis most days.
He was also Granada Reporter of the Year (1980), Colour Magazine Writer of the Year (1982), holder of the Chef and Brewer Crime Writer’s award (1983), and the Overseas Press Club of America award for the best book on foreign affairs in 1975 (The First Casualty).
He has lectured on journalism, law, and war at the National Press Club, Canberra, ACT; the Senate, Canberra, ACT; City University, London; Manchester University, Queen Elizabeth College Oxford, Penn State, UCLA, Stanford University, California; the Inner Temple, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He is a patron of the C.W. Bean Foundation, Canberra ACT.
His two main professional interests have been war reporting and propaganda and espionage. In more than 30 years of writing about espionage he has met most of the spy chiefs of most of the major intelligence services in the world. He dined with Sir Maurice Oldfireld, head of MI6. He lunched with Sir Dick White, head of MI5 and MI6. He corresponded with both. He lunched with Harry Rositzke, head of the CIA’s Soviet bloc division. He lunched with Lyman Kirkpatrick, the CIA’s Inspector-General. He dined with Leonid Shebarshin, head of the KGB. He lunched with Sergei Kondrashov, chief of KGB counter-intelligence. He had drinks with Markus Wolf, head of East German intelligence. He spent one week in Moscow interviewing the notorious British traitor, Kim Philby. He helped KGB general Oleg Kalugin write the outline for his book. He has met dozens of officers and agents from all sides and has written many articles on espionage. Few writers today have his depth of knowledge of the international intelligence community.
Phillip reviews non-fiction books for The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Independent (London) and The Australian’s Review of Books and The Age (Australia). He was a judge for Canada’s Lionel Gelber Prize, the world’s biggest for the best book on international relations. He is European representative of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Washington DC.
He is involved in the the Indian literary and publishing scene and has written columns for several leading Indian newspapers and magazines.
He presented the war reporting documentary to mark the 30th anniversary of This Week; a half-hour documentary on truth for schools’ television; has reviewed the papers for BBC Breakfast TV and many What the Papers Say. He has appeared in many documentaries in Britain, Canada and Australia. He is a judge for Canada’s Lionel Gelber Prize for the year’s best book on international relations ($50,000). He is on the management committee of The Society of Authors, London.
Phillip was born in Australia but has worked most of his life in Britain. He now divides his time between Britain, Australia and India. He is married with three grown-up children and relaxes by playing tennis most days.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2014
One of the most influential books I read and always had in the back of my mind during my 20 years promoting medicine to doctors. I was committed to telling my physicians the good, the bad and the ugly of the drugs I promoted. Exceptionally detailed and accurate this book shows how important side effects were swept under the rug time and time again.
This is the drug that paved the way to strict drug approval trials in Canada. The FDA (run by a Canadian Woman at the time) did not approve Thalidomide in the United States. We Canadians didn't fair as well. My mother was offered this drug for nausea when she was pregnant with me. Thank God she refused to take it. I had a childhood friend named Giselle and a university acquaintance named Randy Warren who didn't fair too well, both born with phocomelia (short limbs).
This is the drug that paved the way to strict drug approval trials in Canada. The FDA (run by a Canadian Woman at the time) did not approve Thalidomide in the United States. We Canadians didn't fair as well. My mother was offered this drug for nausea when she was pregnant with me. Thank God she refused to take it. I had a childhood friend named Giselle and a university acquaintance named Randy Warren who didn't fair too well, both born with phocomelia (short limbs).
October 16, 2022
A shocking book! The continued greed and ‘villainy’ of the drug companies meant that at times this read like a fiction book. However, the reader was continually reminded that these were people’s lives through the detail of the suffering of the children born with deformities caused by thalidomide and the suffering of their families. The true shock of this book wasn’t that it happened as - of course - I was already aware of the scandal but in fact the behaviours of both the pharmaceutical companies involved once the danger of thalidomide was revealed and then what happened once it all went to the courts.
An very important read.
An very important read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews