As I grew older and began to read more widely, particularly more academic histories, I became more aware of Churchill’s flaws and follies, including the shabby treatment of his political colleagues – perhaps no more than Anthony Eden. I’ve been fascinated by Churchill’s career since childhood, raised on a diet of Pathe newsreels, Commando comics and other media that created a simplistic, one-sided portrayal of Churchill as Man of Destiny (for a fascinating explanation of how this has occurred since 1945, I cannot recommend strongly enough Man of the Century: Winston Churchll and his Legend Since 1945by John Ramsden. With Churchill deceased, his place as Prime Minister is taken by Anthony Eden – and thus triggering a butterfly effect on modern British politics. All of Sea Lion Press’ titles have a different Point of Departure (PoD) to mark the beginning of their counter-factual content, and in Shuffling the Deck we see Winston Churchill killed by an unexploded shell on Salisbury Plain in late 1942. I’ll readily admit that I picked up this title both for the intriguing premise (take all of the historical Prime Ministers since 1940 and place them in a slightly different order) and the cover image, which is another example of the fantastic art used by Sea Lion Press for all of their titles. Therefore, up first on the reviewing block is Shuffling the Deck: Several others, however, were shorter titles that I think could be turned into a series of shorter reviews.
One of them – A Greater Britain by Ed Thomas – was a novel-length title that I have just finished reading, and will be reviewing shortly. I tore through President Ashdown is Retiring in a few hours, and then took the opportunity to download a slate of other titles from Sea Lion Press. James Callaghan, the darling of post-war prosperity and Britain's first 'television PM'? Anthony Eden, the hero who won the Second World War? To say nothing of the place in the history books held by Margaret Thatcher…Ī self-styled 'bit of fun', Shuffling The Deck is nevertheless a must-read for alternate historians interested in whether circumstance is more important than 'great man theory' would have us believe.I recently penned an extended review of President Ashdown is Retiring by Jack Tindale and Tom Black, which also described my excitement at finally finding Sea Lion Press – a publisher who specialises in counter-factual history (and good counter-factual history at that). In this dry and witty re-imagining of post-war British politics, the authors take turns to place a familiar Prime Minister in an unfamiliar environment.
Once called 'the most intellectual parlour game around', alternate history doesn't have to be about Nazi zeppelins and steampunk empires.
0 kommentar(er)
