The Madness of July (45 page)
Read The Madness of July Online
Authors: James Naughtie
‘Madness is such a hateful word, but it haunts me. Because in these corridors – balanced and rational though we believe ourselves to be – there’s madness on the loose.’
It is a sweltering July in the mid-1970s, and for Will Flemyng, foreign office minister, the temperature is rising with each passing hour. A mysterious death has exposed secret passions in government, bringing on a political crisis that will draw him into a familiar world of danger and deceit.
For Flemyng has a past. He was trained as a spy for a life behind enemy lines in the Cold War and now he is compelled to go back. In the course of one long weekend he has to question all his loyalties – to his friends, his rivals and to his two brothers. Flemyng’s hazardous journey takes him to the battlefields of his own past and to the dark places where London and Washington do their most secret business, in an era brought brilliantly to life by a writer steeped in the story of Flemyng’s own world.
‘A hugely satisfying thriller that grips from the first page to the last.’
Kate Mosse
‘Smoke-screen writing sustains the tension... the reader never stops wondering who, what and why... a bit like solving a cryptic crossword. A real delight.’
Independent on Sunday
‘Echoes of John Buchan and John le Carré.’
Sunday Times
‘Addictive. The reader has to piece together a drip-feed of clues.’
Independent
‘A slow-burning, cerebral and gripping thriller which fuses the entwined professions of politics and espionage.’
Herald
‘Secrets and regrets, ambition and venality. Complex and psychologically detailed, I have seldom come across a novel so redolent of le Carré’s milieu and technique. An evocative and eloquent novel.’
Charles Cumming
‘Good writing, vivid scene-setting and knowledgeable descriptions from an insider at ease in the corridors of power.’
Literary Review
‘A literate, intelligent spy thriller… John le Carré in the early days.’
M. C. Scott
‘A book about the often forgotten role of emotions in politics. To be read on the sleeper train to Edinburgh.’
The Times
‘A fast-paced read full of intriguing insights into the impact of political life, from a man with 30 years’ experience of the corridors of power.’
Daily Mail
‘The tale has a neat twist, and is a lot of fun. Let’s hope we hear more of the not quite retired minister-spook Will Flemyng.’
Evening Standard
‘Spycraft, triple-crosses, political intrigue and psychological depth.’
Irish times
JAMES NAUGHTIE presents Today on BBC Radio 4. His career as a journalist, in newspapers and then as a broadcaster, began in the era in which this story is set. He has written books on politics and music, but this is his first novel. He lives in Edinburgh and London.
1. The Madness of July
It is a sweltering July in the mid-1970s, and for Will Flemyng, foreign office minister, the temperature is rising with each passing hour. A mysterious death has exposed secret passions in government, bringing on a political crisis that will draw him into a familiar world of danger and deceit.
For Flemyng has a past. He was trained as a spy for a life behind enemy lines in the Cold War and now he is compelled to go back. In the course of one long weekend he has to question all his loyalties – to his friends, his rivals and to his two brothers. Flemyng’s hazardous journey takes him to the battlefields of his own past and to the dark places where London and Washington do their most secret business, in an era brought brilliantly to life by a writer steeped in the story of Flemyng’s own world.
2.
Paris Spring
Paris in 1968 - seething with revolutionaries and spies - sees Will Flemyng’s world turned upside down, after a mysterious encounter on the metro and a chance revelation from a rival operative. In a city alive with talk of revolution, Will finds himself in the thick of the action, a young spy whose first adventures behind the Iron Curtain have already given him a secret glamour. But now he gets news that threatens the closest and most complicated relationship in his life, with his younger brother.
In the unforgettable weeks of a crisis that claims blood and tests his deepest loyalties, Flemyng lives and loves the tumult of a city in which his private fears teach him the secrets that lie beneath the raucous politics of the streets. This is the making of the man whose journey leads to The Madness of July - Will Flemyng, trapped with his friends and enemies in The Paris Spring.
Paris Spring
is available
here
from Spring 2015.
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The story starts here.
First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © James Naughtie, 2014
The moral right of James Naughtie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN (HB) 9781781856000
ISBN (XTPB) 9781781856017
ISBN (E) 9781781855997
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28