Fifty-First State - Softcover

Bailey, Hilary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1448209307 ISBN 13: 9781448209309

Publisher: Bloomsbury Reader, 2012

Synopsis

It is the year 2013. Britain is in a severe recession and poverty is causing mayhem. There has been a sequence of short-lived hung parliaments and, due to terrorist bombs, repressive measures have been brought in by the power-hungry Government which fall especially hard on British Muslims.

Global security is also at risk when an election in Iraq brings in a fundamentalist government and it threatens to nationalize its oil. And the friendly partnership between the US and UK is over - destroyed by mistrust.

After a new election is called, Lord Gott, Treasurer of the Conservative Party, receives large sums of money from supposedly legitimate sources. This helps secure a majority for his party and Alan Petherbridge becomes Prime Minister. Gott steps in to investigate despite a scandalous personal secret that might get in the way. . .

About this title

About the Author:

Hilary Bailey is a British writer and editor, born in 1936. She is the author of a biography of Vera Brittain, she edited volumes 7-10 of the New Worlds Quarterly series and among her varied works are 19 books of fiction, including famously Frankenstein's Bride, the sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and most recently, Fifty- First State (2008).

From Booklist:

English writer Bailey presents a wryly chilling, totally entertaining, and all-too-believable tale of political machination that explores the quest for order and stability that underpins repressive regimes. It’s 2017 and 80,000 American troops are stationed on British soil in an occupation rooted in the U.S. president’s scheme to replace the prime minister with “one of ours. . . . He backs us militarily and gets rid of the nests of Islamic vipers in their cities.” With nothing less than her aim to “subvert the government of Great Britain,” the prime minister manipulates and exploits the Brits’ fear of terrorist bombings, knowing many citizens are “more anxious about getting to work safely on public transport than civil rights.” And some of those jobs stem from the occupation. But when a U.S. military action against protesters goes dreadfully wrong and bullets fly, the world sees the face of a sobbing young British boy on his knees, “covered in his mother’s blood” as he gazes up into the face of an American soldier. Will this tear Britain apart? --Whitney Scott

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Reader
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1448209307
• ISBN 13: 9781448209309
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380