Harry Barnett thought he had left his military career behind, so he is startled when two figures from his past turn up on his doorstep after fifty years. An old friend has organised the reunion to end all reunions: a weekend in the Scottish castle where the ex-comrades took part in a psychological experiment many years before. They haven't seen each other since. As they set off on their all-expenses-paid jaunt to Aberdeen, the old friends are in high spirits. But the cheerful atmosphere is quickly shattered by the apparent suicide of one of their party. When a second death occurs, a sense of foreboding descends on the group. It appears that the past is coming back to haunt them, a past that none of them have ever spoken about. Their recollections are all frighteningly different. So what really happened? Then when one of them uncovers an extraordinary secret, he becomes convinced that they will never leave the castle alive...
With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the President is forced to establish his own clandestine group - Covert-One - selected from the very best operators America has to offer. It is only activated as a last resort, when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out. In Northern Uganda an American Special Forces team is wiped out by a group of normally peaceful farmers. Video of the attack shows even women and children possessing almost supernatural speed and strength, consumed with a rage that makes them immune to pain, fear, and all but the most devastating injuries. Covert-One's top operative, Army microbiologist Colonel Jon Smith, is sent to investigate the attack and finds evidence of a parasitic infection that for centuries has been causing violent insanity and then going dormant. This time, though, it's different. The infection is purposely being kept alive and the director of Iranian Intelligence is in Uganda trying to make a deal for a biological weapon to unleash on the West. As Smith and his team are cut off from all outside support, they begin to suspect that forces much more powerful than the Iranians are in play forces that can be traced to Washington itself.
The Presidents daughter has been kidnapped by Jewish terrorists. With the world watching, Sean Dillon is called in to find her, before the Commander-in-Chief is forced to make a decision which could rip the world apart. Twenty years ago a young war hero saved a life, and began a passionate affair. Now, that young war hero is President of the United States, and a souvenir from his past, a beautiful daughter that he never knew existed, surfaces as the first of many secrets to be kept from public knowledge. But someone, somewhere, has uncovered the truth. The girl is seized by religious zealots, and unless the President complies with their demands, her execution is certain. Yet if he gives in, the Middle East will ignite in war. He calls in the only men who can help: Sean Dillon and Blake Johnson, two notorious specialists, who will do whatever it takes to find the President's daughter. But with time running out, can they get to her before a desperate father makes a truly momentous decision, one the whole world will regret?
Enter a world of political counterfactuals, twenty-two examinations of things that never happened but could have. In this book a collection of distinguished commentators, including journalists, academics, former MPs and special advisers, consider how things might have turned out differently throughout a century of political history from Lloyd George and Keynes drowning at sea in 1916 right through to Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister in 2016. Scholarly analyses of possibilities and causalities take their place beside fi ctional accounts of alternate political histories and all are guaranteed to entertain and make you think.
The mesmerizing new Sean Dillon thriller of murder, terrorism and revenge from the Sunday Times bestselling author. Fresh from his mission in THE JUDAS GATE to seek out and eliminate one of al Qaedas most valued agents, a traitor responsible for countless soldiers? deaths in Afghanistan, Sean Dillon is back in a blistering new adventure. The American President, on a planned visit to Europe, is entertained by the British Prime Minister on the terrace of the House of Commons. On the same day, London born Mullah Ali Salim makes an impassioned speech at Hyde Park Corner accusing the President of war crimes, objecting to his presence and offering a blessing to anyone who will assassinate him. Dillon, Major Ferguson and Daniel Holley are called into action, helped by a new recruit, Intelligence Corp Captain Sara Gideon, a war hero in the Afghan conflict, whose specialty is Pashta and Iranian. They quickly find themselves trying to handle a massive upsurge in terrorism from enemies near and far, all with links to al Qaeda. As a Sephardic Jew from a wealthy and ancient English family, Sara will find herself at the heart of the firestorm when she is swept into the heart of the terror organisation. Though their leader may be gone the threat remains as terrible as ever, and though Dillon and company may have won the first battle with al Qaeda, they will learn the war is far from over. A devil is indeed waiting and the assassination plan is only the beginning?
'Liberty, equality, fraternity' cry the revolutionaries as they spill the blood of the aristocracy into the streets of Paris. The rumble of the tumbrils strikes fear into the hearts of the once rich and powerful. For one young noblewoman, a simple act of charity from years before could be the only thing that can save her. This gripping new addition to the My Story series is a fascinating glimpse into the Reign of Terror
A fully updated edition of Gimson's 2006 biography, with new material covering Boris's years as Mayor of London. His distinctive appearance ('Like a haystack on a bicycle'), befuddled manner and ready wit have assured a high media profile and a large fanbase with the general public. In 2008 he was elected Mayor of London with over 1 million votes, the largest personal mandate of any UK politician. In this, the first and most authoritative biography of Boris, Andrew Gimson investigates Boris' twin-faced dilemma - politics or entertainment - and asks how deep his political ambition runs. Boris has transcended his class, education and his various occupations (Mayor of London, Conservative MP for Henley-on-Thames, Conservative spokesman for Higher Education, columnist on the Daily Telegraph, motoring correspondent for GQ, novelist, TV presenter) to become a paradoxical character - the old Etonian who fascinates teenagers as well as grandparents, the classical scholar who is also a TV quiz-show contestant. Despite being a comic actor of genius, he is not just an act and Andrew Gimson's biography covers all facets of this complex individual. There is his exotic Turkish ancestry, his place among five siblings, his competitive relationship with his father Stanley, the distinguished university career, his five years as a journalist in Brussels, his first failed venture into politics ('I fought Clwyd South - and Clwyd South fought back'), overseeing the Spectator during the David Blunkett affair and the Liverpool editorial fiasco which led to Boris' sacking from the shadow cabinet, his exile and return under David Cameron, his two marriages, four children and love affairs. Interviewing Boris' contemporaries, his family and his detractors, Andrew Gimson has created a fascinating and amusing portrait of this unique man of our times.
What do you do when everything you know and believe in crashes around you in a hail of fists and boots, flying chairs and broken glass? And not just once, but seemingly every time you leave the house? When it seemed that no one was listening, that Matthew Collins was just another white face from a council estate, and that there was nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, the violence and racism of the far-right offered him an alluring escape from the mediocrity of school, work and boredom. In 1980s Britain, the belligerent sentiments of a few hundred lonely white men went almost unnoticed, but this tiny minority had grand designs. Ignored and marginalised, and fuelled by alcohol and violence, they built a party that would go on to hold seats in council chambers across England and in the European Parliament. Hidden behind those large Union Jack flags were individuals Collins included seemingly prepared to bomb and kill to make their violent dreams a reality. But what do you do when you realise that the burning hatred, vehement patriotism and thirst for confrontation that haunts you from the playground to the pub to the ballot box stems from your own insecurities and isolation? The answer? You switch sides.