ALL OUR TOMORROWS - Book review

Ted Allbeury’s 1982 novel All Our Tomorrows is another addition to the long list of alternate future histories. This one is about a take-over of Britain by the USSR in the latter part of the 1980s. It’s a time when the EU was the more benign EEC and Woolworths were still on the high streets. And of course the all-pervasive Internet and social media had not yet taken hold.

It’s not his usual spy story, but rather an angry assessment of the state of the nation at that time, beginning with a quotation from Lenin: ‘British Communism should... learn to support the Labour Party leaders by their votes “as the rope supports the hanged man”.’ (p6)

Britain is talking about pulling out of the EEC (the debilitating tentacles of the EU had not been foreseen then). The situation in the country was dire: ‘We let things drift. We let criminals get away with it... Rioting, looting, hooliganism, were excused as being caused by racialism... We are scared of being labelled Fascists or reactionaries. It’s nice to be soft. And liked. And in the end it could get you votes’ (p18).

‘It was obvious, even to the public, that the law of the land could no longer be enforced’ (p96). The country was becoming ungovernable. A State of Emergency was declared, ostensibly due to mounting inflation and high unemployment. Strikes were illegal. Freedoms were constrained – and this was accepted...

French President Becque sees the situation and approaches Soviet President Orlov, suggesting that without Britain as an ally and a base, the US could never supply NATO in a war. If the British government asked the Soviet Union for help and in return became neutral territory... The Russian advisers could bring Britain full employment and law and order would be restored... Cooper, the British PM is faced with a dilemma, posed by the Soviets: ‘A choice to avoid a war you can’t win. You haven’t got the arms, the men or the planes. And you haven’t got the will to fight’ (p93).

So, aware that his country’s problems seem insurmountable; the PM signs a treaty of neutrality, inviting the Soviet Union to assist in bringing law and order to Britain – ‘bring back stability’ (p97).

Stability meant the country would be subject to Soviet law.

Change. ‘Let me tell you of some of those changes... Politicians have not served this country well. They have been divisive not constructive, seeking privileges for themselves and their sponsors. Therefore there will be no political parties in this country for the next five years’ (p109).

Before the take-over, the royal family was spirited away to Canada. The Queen made a broadcast which could only offer hope despite ‘men of evil intent exploited our traditional tolerance and freedom for their own ends... Old friends deserted us, some went so far as to hasten our downfall...’ (p139) [She didn’t mention the French!] The text of her speech reads as if it actually had been her speaking.

It seems that as the Soviet yolk pressed down upon the people, they became accepting of the new conditions: ‘We daren’t say what we think; nobody can criticise the system and survive’ (p198).

However, there was resistance. SAS Colonel Harry Andrews and his men Joe Langley and Jamie Boyle have built up a veritable army of spies, activists, saboteurs and fighters throughout the country. Harry’s plea to the populace, subject to harsh and brutal reprisals from the occupying troops, was clear: ‘Be strong. Not just for today but tomorrow and all our tomorrows’ (p267).

And, as it happens, the US hasn’t given up on occupied Britain. President Wheeler has the ear of Colonel Andrews also.  The struggle can bear fruit... though perhaps nothing would ever be the same again.

A thought-provoking book with surprising relevance to the situation today. 

Deep Purple - book review

 Ted Allbeury’s 1989 espionage thriller Deep Purple has all the hallmarks of his earlier books: authentic background, knowledge of the inner workings of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

 

It all begins with Yakunin, a KGB walk-in at the British embassy in Washington. He is swiftly flown to a safe house in England where he will be questioned by Eddie Hoggart, a man who worked his way up from a deprived childhood to become a seasoned interrogator.  Hoggart is married to Jacqui, a sex worker with a past that includes a Soho hard-man, Harry Gardner. In effect, Eddie and Jacqui are two sides of the same coin, surviving the hard knocks of society. Eddie was helped up by an adoptive parent and he wants to help Jacqui. Only Gardner has other ideas…

Confusing the mix is yet another defection: KGB man Belinsky, who appears to contradict the revelations of Yakunin.  Which one is the genuine defector, and which is the plant? Or are they both not what they seem?

The big question is: do they know about a mole in the higher echelons of MI6?

Here we can understand the lonely existence of spies. Yes, orphans definitely make the best recruits.

There are some poignant and tragic moments in this story, which rings true, thanks to Allbeury’s attention to the details that matter.

The title of the book is relevant: it relates to the old tune of the same name.

THE ASSETS - Book review

 THE ASSETS

 

Ted Allbeury is an excellent writer of espionage thrillers, and had written over forty books. This is his take on Operation MK Ultra, which was a CIA mind-control programme. It actually existed, and employed drugs and hypnotism to illegally control unwitting subjects.(A clever cover, showing the timepiece inducing hypnosis).

The story begins in Korea in 1953 with PFC Joe Maguire in charge of released US prisoners-of-war. (The Captain says ‘Good soldiers don’t get taken prisoner’. Remind you of someone?) 

By the time of the US departure from Vietnam in 1975, Maguire is a Lieutenant-colonel. Maguire left the army and took up law, mostly acting for ex-servicemen. He’s then recruited by a Colonel Swenson to liaise between the CIA, the Treasury and the Pentagon. Maguire is a fundamentally decent man, an ideal choice to monitor the goings-on of MK Ultra. 

The trouble with the mind control programme is that its subjects can become confused and irrational, particularly when their controllers abscond or die in an RTA. The story is set mainly in the US.

Alas, the novel reads like a documentary in parts, and covers a lot of ground, but, with the exception of Maguire, we don’t get to know the many characters in any kind of depth. If this was written by an American author it would be twice the length (it’s 308 pages) to pad details about everyone involved. This was Allbeury’s last book, dedicated to ‘my brave and beautiful wife Grazyna Maria who died a few weeks after I finished the book’. Allbeury died in 2005, aged 88.

THE ALPHA LIST - Book review

 THE ALPHA LIST

 

Ted Allbeury served as an officer in the Intelligence Corps, working on SOE counter-intelligence, so his espionage books have the ring of authenticity. During the Cold War he was captured and tortured when running agents across the border between East and West Germany, and he hints at this on p75:

‘Laker had been killed in Oslo by a KGB operator a couple of years ago. Laker ran a line-crossing operation across the Finnish frontier into the USSR. He had lasted about eight months which was the equivalent of three score years and ten in that part of the world doing that particular job… Laker had been a survivor from a previous line-crossing network and ought to have been pulled out…’

The Alpha List was published in 1979. It’s a first-person narrative by agent Dave Marsh, who has been tasked with investigating an old friend, a Labour MP, Charlie Kelly, who is suspected of passing information to the Soviets. There’s talk of an Alpha List, which could be significant, but Charlie won’t disclose any details.

It’s fascinating how we get to know these two men growing up in post-war England, and how their politics and idealism change them.

Marsh is involved in a game of cat-and-mouse not only with his own people but also the Russians. The truth that is finally revealed to Marsh is devastating.

This was written when the Soviet Union was a powerful protagonist, before it was broken up. When the UK, not Europe, was in effect the front line against Soviet aggression. Would the United States have risked a Third World War if the USSR had attacked the UK?

Some of Allbeury’s books have downbeat endings; be warned, this is one of them.