by Julie Anderson
On 15th September 2020 my mystery/crime thriller, Plague (Claret Press) was published, my first foray into writing crime fiction (although not my first novel). It is set in a world which I know well - that of Whitehall - and its plot plays out across September in the Palace of Westminster.
'The programme for the real House of Commons on 15th September is for Treasury questions, but, given the times we are living through, who knows what may be the subject of discussion. Parliament has returned from the Summer vacation, but it rises again on 2nd October as politicians prepare for the party conferences. It is in this short session, between the Summer vacation and the party conferences that 'Plague' is set.'
The political world has ample material for a thriller - power struggles, jealousies and rivalries, alliances and betrayals, and it's not as if this world has been without its chroniclers, going back to Anthony Trollope and the Palliser series. Some political fiction focuses on a specific politician, like House of Cards by Michael Dobbs, former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party and now Baron Dobbs. Some look at a political moment, such as a crisis, like A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin MP, which has also been adapted for the screen twice, though the 2012 version was called A Secret State. Or they focus on a campaign like Primary Colors, published anonymously, but actually written by Washington beltway insider Joe Klein, which recounts a fictional presidential battle based closely on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign.
It helps to be an insider. Tom Watson, until relatively recently, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is publishing a novel, co-written with Imogen Robertson, later this year. I am not, and I have never been, a politician, but, as a Senior Civil Servant, I worked in that milieu for years, so I know the physical locations and a lot of the history, but also have plenty of experience of MPs and Ministers in the Palace of Westminster.
Of course the real freedom is to set your novel in a fictional world or in the future - like Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale or The Testaments, very 'political' novels - though novels set in the past can also be insightful and inspired, like Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy. Topicality can be double-edged. There's an ongoing debate among writers at present, given COVID-19, about tethering one's story to a specific time. One writer has said she is shifting her current 2020 tale to the recent past, given that 'They didn't kiss' isn't going to be the best ending for a romance. Others have stripped out dates. A novel entitled Plague would, you would think, have a built in advantage, but it, like so many others, will have a difficult publication because of COVID.
So what is the big idea in my story? Honour, ambition, friendship, greed, love, power - all of them can be political with a small 'p', all can shine a revealing light on to the political or how things are now. Plague is about power, which is the filter through which many of the relationships, interactions and events are seen. This allows me to consider the human need to have self-agency and control and, for some, domination, within personal relationships as well as in the political arena. Who has the power in a relationship is as pertinent a question as who is going to get the power of the top job and be Prime Minister. I wanted to bring all these elements together.
What is the outcome of my tale? Not in terms of plot - is the killer caught, does the girl get a boy - but what happens in the politics, do things change? One of the best examples of 'alternative' political endings, in my opinion, is in the film of The Big Short by Michael Lewis, a non-fiction best seller. Is the capitalist system regulated into becoming socially equitable, with its wealthy wrongdoers sent to jail, or do things get swept under the carpet as the little guy pays, allowing a return to former destructive ways? Both endings are offered, somewhat ironically. We know which applied.
insights about 21st century literature
I wrote a mystery/thriller and readers of that type of fiction tend to be justice seekers so, of course, my ending seems wrongs righted. There are changes to laws and in Parliament, but, much as I would have liked to have an even more positive ending, it had to be credible, fiction or not. My heroes race against time to find the culprit and stop a series of macabre murders before the House rises at the end of September. Who knows, in COVID and Brexit Times, what September 2020 might bring? Truth may turn out to be stranger than fiction.
Meet this week’s author Julie Anderson
After retiring from a successful career in the civil service, Julie Anderson turned her attention to writing. She is the author of two children’s novels, Reconquista (long listed for the Mslexia Children’s Novel 2016) and The Silver Rings, as well as a collection of short stories The Village: A Year in Twelve Tales.
Julie is also Chair of Trustees for Clapham Writers, and is one of the creators and organisers of Clapham Book Festival.
Julie's new book, Plague, will be available from late September 2020
Publisher is Claret Press and the book costs £9.99.
Whitehall photo and below kindly supplied by Julie Anderson
Publisher is Claret Press and the book costs £9.99.
Whitehall photo and below kindly supplied by Julie Anderson
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Broadening this great topic we have some more interesting points of view:
Does Fiction Have the Power to Sway Politics? Mohsin Hamid’s view
“Most novels aren’t directly credited with starting wars. Yet fiction still instigates change. Fiction can say publicly what might otherwise appear unsayable, combating the coerced silence that is a favoured weapon of those who have power. In Pakistan, for example, where numerous hatreds — including of Hindus, of atheists, of supposed sexual transgressors — have been actively promoted by the state for purposes of social control, we have seen Hindu characters, non believing characters, sexually transgressive characters being humanised in fiction.”
Another Challenging question
Can politics influence literature?
Leslie Muzingo, Writer of Short Stories at Self-Employment
“Writers have long been using their pen to influence social change. Consider Charles Dickens. The poor were banished to the workhouse and to prisons when they couldn’t pay their debt in Dickens time, so he wrote books exposing both the foolishness and cruelty of these practices. (Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit) People read his work, and, despite his novels being fiction, they inspired his country to change the way things were done.
An example of a work that directly affected politics in the United States is the book, “The Jungle.” That book was published during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration and was a fictionalised account of what happens inside of a meat packing plant. Even today, the book is not for the faint of heart. Roosevelt read that book and it caused the start of the FDA, grading of meat, and inspections of food factories, etc.
But you asked for how this was done and not for examples. There are always topics that are either controversial or merely timely or ripe and many authors want to write about those things. But an author who figures out for his or herself a topic that his country or better yet the world should change, and that he or she believes few authors, if any else, is writing on, THAT is the author that is going to be listened to. To be different is to be new and exciting and the world of literature always drops everything for what is new and exciting. So in the end, the answer to your question is that politics will be influenced by what everyone is listening to at that moment, and that is more likely to be whatever is the new exciting thing at that particular time.
However, just to give you an example of the other way of going, a story of mine was recently included in an anthology called “Sanctuary” (edited by Carlson). I am out of the country at present, so I haven’t even seen the final book, but it is my belief that there are several stories in it having to do with immigration. That is one of the “hot topics” right now. While many people are interested in that topic, it is a bit like supply and demand. Lots of interest, but a big supply. But if someone, as I described in the paragraph directly above, can bring excitement to some other topic, then THAT’s the one that might be just that!”
Amy Broderick, Bookkeeper
“To answer that question, I will turn to what is, in my opinion, the most political hit piece of history: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri.
The story of the Inferno (which is a beautiful poem written between 1308 and 1320) is an allegorical journey through the concentric rings of hell with the poet Virgil as a guide. In each circle, souls suffer torment brought on by their evil, selfish, and cruel ways and intentions relative to their sins committed during life.
Now the part that makes it political is the actual souls of the real people Dante mentioned in each of the circles of this hell. They were the men that beleaguered, belittled, and bemoaned him and his family during his life: Pope Boniface VII, Filipo Argenti, Il Cardinal, etc. Hence this 14,233 line poem is basically a political hit job that became one of the most prominent and famous pieces of literature to survive the ravages of time.”
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