Samson’s Syndrome

  by Ben Soton

Samson’s Syndrome by Steve Monaghan. 2017; Troubador Publishing; 210pp.

Paperback: £7.99; ISBN: 9781788033237.
Kindle: £3.99; eISBN: 9781788032506.

This is very much a political thriller.  John Morton, a journalist on the Guardianesque newspaper The Chronicle finds himself caught up in the fascist coup in Ukraine in 2014 where a fellow journalist, Karl Waggoner, is killed in suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile a Conservative aristocrat, Sir Harold Nevin, attempts to take over the Chronicle. Morton’s desire to investigate his colleague’s death sees his eyes gradually open about the true nature of events in Ukraine and beyond.

The author uses the story to forward a progressive and anti-imperialist narrative around recent world events. This style reminds me of the novels of the great 1930s thriller writer Eric Ambler, who used the thriller genre to expose both links between finance capital and the criminal underworld, and the threat posed by fascism at the time.

Monaghan demolishes the liberal/fake-left notion of an Orange Revolution, arguing that it was not simply a case of far-right groups joining an otherwise peaceful protest but being the main force behind the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.

Some pro-imperialist commentators like to portray Russia as the aggressor in this conflict – in actual fact she played a purely defensive role. Russia has only provided limited support for the anti-fascist people’s republics in eastern Ukraine and the return of Crimea was perfectly legal; were this not the case why did Ukraine not refer the matter to the International Court?

The author takes time to look at the role of the European Union  in the conflict; further reasons for pro-EU types to hang their heads in shame.

The novel is equally an attack on what the author calls the “Corporate Media”, which is able to paint black as white and white as black.  Monaghan explains how large media organisations do more to censor information than to provide it, in order to prevent opposition to conflict as was the case of Vietnam.

He also covers the poor treatment of loyal employees through the character of Shirley Bould, who has worked on the Chronicle for years and who may have trouble finding future employment. Nonetheless, Shirley, the classic underdog figure, finds a role within the story.

But the author’s attempt to use a novel to espouse progressive politics lacks the subtlety of Ambler. This is referred to as ‘Trojan Horse’ fiction. Nevertheless he should be commended for it, although I can hear less progressive critics calling it a piece of Stalinist propaganda. This is both the book’s greatest strength as well as a possible weakness. I urge readers to purchase this novel, which is available on Amazon, or request it at your local library.

Mrs Wilson

Review

By Ben Soton

In this Tuesday night espionage thriller on BBC1, the actress Ruth Wilson plays her grandmother Alison Wilson. The three-part series centres around the theme of deception, which goes hand in hand with espionage. Alison Wilson meets her husband Alec Wilson, an espionage agent, during the Second World War and they soon marry. The marriage lasts until Alec dies from a heart attack. Shortly after his death a mysterious woman appears announcing herself as Wilson’s wife. The question the programme seems to be asking is how well do we know those closest to us?

The same question seems to be asked a lot on the BBC at the moment, with a similar plot line in EastEnders.

The drama starts in 1963 with Alec Wilson’s death. The programme makers create an atmosphere of order; women are shown working in a typing pool (something that younger readers may need to Google), sat in orderly rows. Streets appear to be clean with little traffic.  Order starts to break down when the other Mrs Wilson appears on the doorstep of their suburban home. Alison Wilson then goes through her husbands’ effects and we are taken back to 1940; suddenly everything is made to look untidy.

At this stage I am expecting readers to be saying: “But it would be untidy…there was a bloody war on.” The nature of the thriller genre, however, is about the idea of the disorder and concluding with order being restored. The element of disorder being the idea of Alison Wilson’s world being turned upside down as a result of her not knowing what is happening.  Order can only be restored when she finds out what the hell is going on. Suffice it to say, the programme continually jumps between the order of the 1960s and the disorder of the 1940s.  Two period dramas for the price of one.

In the 1940s a fifty-something Alec Wilson, played by Ian Glen, seduces the future Mrs Wilson, a typist in her early twenties. In one scene Alec Wilson tells his now wife about plans for the battle of El Alamein and that he is to be arrested in what he says is some kind of stunt. At this point I immediately smelt a rat. No spy would tell even his wife about something that secretive. After a period of time away, Alec Wilson tells his wife that he is going to be working undercover in a series of menial jobs and will have to pretend to be a disgraced officer.

What I found infuriating is we are not told what the alleged misdemeanour was; although that is the nature of thrillers. Occasional shots of rosary beads remind us that Alec Wilson was a devout Catholic, who presumably would have opposed the concept of divorce.

Is this drama simply about a worldly older man seducing an innocent younger woman, or something more sinister and subsequently more interesting? The mystery should unravel in the next two episodes.

We are left with an element of suspense when Alison Wilson meets an Indian acquaintance of her husband who tells her what a good man he was. With this scene all kinds of ideas came to mind. To put the cat amongst the pigeons a mysterious woman called Dorothy, played by Keeley Hawes (also not looking like she has aged much), appears in both time periods. Could she hold the secret? As a result, this could be the making of a good television drama.