Fifty-First State

It is the year 2013. Britain is in a severe recession and poverty is causing mayhem. There has been a sequence of short-lived hung parliaments and, due to terrorist bombs, repressive measures have been brought in by the power-hungry Government which fall especially hard on British Muslims.

Global security is also at risk when an election in Iraq brings in a fundamentalist government and it threatens to nationalize its oil. And the friendly partnership between the US and UK is over - destroyed by mistrust.

After a new election is called, Lord Gott, Treasurer of the Conservative Party, receives large sums of money from supposedly legitimate sources. This helps secure a majority for his party and Alan Petherbridge becomes Prime Minister. Gott steps in to investigate despite a scandalous personal secret that might get in the way. . .

Hilary Bailey is a British writer and editor, born in 1936. She is the author of a biography of Vera Brittain, she edited volumes 7-10 of the New Worlds Quarterly series and among her varied works are 19 books of fiction, including famously Frankenstein's Bride, the sequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and most recently, Fifty- First State (2008).