The blurb says

GREAT BRITAIN, 1937. Edward VIII and his new bride, Wallis, are preparing for their coronation; Winston Churchill is a prisoner on the Isle of Man; and Prime Minister Oswald Mosley –– the Leader, as he is known –– consults Adolf Hitler on a more ‘permanent’ solution to the ‘Jewish problem’. In exchange for full bellies, the British population has yielded to a regime of terror, enforced by Mosley’s secret police.


JAMES ARMSTRONG, a hero of the Great War, is on the the run, wanted by Mosley for organising a resistance movement to the government. The Leader is determined to see Armstrong hang. But Armstrong is every bit as clever as the evil men on his trail...

THE LEADER

Published

October 2003 (UK)

June 2004 (Holland)



Praise

This second novel by former journalist Guy Walters is masterfully crafted and

genuinely frightening.


                                The Daily Express


A convincing and intelligent thriller...[Armstrong] is a good remake of Richard Hannay.

                                    The Daily Mail


A ‘what-if’ thriller in Fatherland vein...compulsive reading indeed.


                                    The Bookseller



An engaging piece of what-ifery...a great set-piece climax.

                                  The Times



A clever tale that twists history upside-down...non-stop action all the way and a thoroughly good read.


                 Swindon Evening Advertiser


Walters throws in a few twists to produce a readable novel of Buchan-lite thrills.


                              The Sunday Herald


There is plenty of historical

detail. And intrigue...

The Leader is a good read.


                              Manx Independent


It is to Walters’s credit that

he manages to to keep the

plot and pace moving along

swiftly and rapidly creates a believable fascist Britain with

this usual twist filled ending.

Hard to beat on the beach this summer.


                         Asian Review of Books



A fine ‘what-if’ work.


                                South Wales Echo



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Guy says

The idea for The Leader came from reading Philip Ziegler’s biography of Edward VIII, in which Ziegler tells how the Duke and Duchess of Windsor befriended Sir Oswald and Lady Mosley in their twilight years in Paris. I could just imagine the two couples sitting in an elegant French drawing-room, the light fading on their conversation as they discussed what Britain might have been like had Edward remained on the throne and if Sir Oswald had become Prime Minister. It felt like a play, albeit a very static one, and when I suggested it to my agent, she was having none of it -- rightly, I suspect. However, there was no doubt that the idea could be mutated into a fun counterfactual thriller, and what was intended to be a play in which four bitter old people droned on in a drawing-room became a thriller full of petrol bombs, secret tunnels, spies and Blackshirt thugs. The opening scene in which my hero escapes from the camp on the Isle of Man is based on an escape attempt made by British fascists during the war. I even visited the house in Peel from where the tunnel was started, although sadly no sign of the tunnel remains. My researches also took me to the Mull of Galloway, which has to be one of the most underrated parts of Scotland. I’d recommend a visit, with a copy of The Leader tucked into your suitcase...

For those who want to see more about Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, then click here for my old website.