The Banqueting Club

 

Norman Armstrong and Alf Burton are an unlikely pair of political friends. One is a left-wing journalist who grew up in poverty, a man with a national reputation and a sharp tongue; the other is the Tory Chief Whip, and the latest in a long family line of distinguished politicians. A violent argument between the two proves to be the beginning of a lasting bond. When Alf tells Norman that he has been lucky enough to secure access to a revelatory manuscript written by Charlotte Morris – an Edwardian popular novelist who made herself unpopular with the Establishment by campaigning against Kitchener’s concentration camps – both men immediately understand the potentially explosive significance of the event. But neither could have predicted the extraordinary way in which, against the background of 1980s Britain and the imminent miners’ strike, this political thriller would unfold.

 

Armstrong’s Army

 

The summer of 1984 is eventful, to say the least, in British politics. Riots, bombings and the murder of a police officer have all occurred. Besides, the miners’ strike is in progress, policed (or aggravated) by the special unit dubbed ‘Armstrong’s Army’. The strike affects the whole nation. The murder of a taxi driver and an undercover Special Branch agent; police informants infiltrating the miners’ pickets. Numerous claims are being made of police corruption and crime. Home Secretary Sir Norman Armstrong and his old friend; outspoken, left wing commentator Alf Burton, find themselves entrenched on opposite sides of this increasingly bitter and deadly fight. Can their decades-old friendship survive? Meanwhile, what of the papers lost years ago, with the sinking of the Lady Georgiana? Alf Burton uncovers increasingly disturbing links to the current day, and finds Sir Norman’s own family heavily implicated. What was the secret they concealed?

 

The Enemy Within

 

Veteran Geordie lobby correspondent, Alf Burton, has long had to balance his personal friendship with Conservative Home Secretary, Sir Norman Armstrong, with his political views and background. Anti-Thatcherite, working-class champion, crusading journalist and political commentator, his role as national radio presenter and interviewer for one of the leading Tory Party donors, heightens the tension further. Especially when the Home Office plans to enforce mass redundancies in shipbuilding hot on the heels of the bitter Miners' Strike of 1984-5. His already divided loyalties are stretched to the limit as his journalistic powers are enlisted to investigate the suspicious wartime death and disappearance of a Scotland Yard detective on the point of uncovering disturbing information concerning respected political dynasties at the heart of government. His search reveals a complex web of police corruption, organised crime and a secret society, from which extricating himself is not an option.

 

Acknowledgement: Synopses by Olympia Publishers © 2019-2020

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Buy individually or as a series from Amazon. Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Paperback version available from Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, Foyles and all major retailers.

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The Banqueting Club is also in audio, narrated by Alistair McMillan.