The measurement of the hadronic cross-section in e⁺ e^- annihilation at high luminosity factories using the radiative return method is motivated and discussed. A Monte Carlo generator which simulates the radiative process e⁺ e^- \rightarrow \gamma + hadrons at the next-to-leading order accuracy is presented. The analysis is then extended to the description of events with hard photons radiated at very small angle.

PACS numbers: 13.40.Em, 13.40.Ks, 13.65.+i