The Durian Pact is a novel, but it also exists as a Treaty. It is the very real 'Five Powers Defence Arrangements' that tie the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore to the defence of the Malay Peninsula. Originally the threat came from Japan, today the threat is again from the North – from China. That is the premise around which my novel revolves and the UK's entanglement in the plotting surrounding Chinese expansionism in South-East Asia.
But why a novel? Well, I came to the idea over a long period. There has been a plethora of political biographies over the last few years, Cameron's dull tomb, Theresa May's even worse effort. Boris, Brady and more. Big Names of the last 14 years of Conservative politics all wanted to write their histories. For the most part by wishing to paint their protagonists in a good light these writers deprive the reader of the truth of what actually went on.
Having spent the last 14 years at the sharp end of Conservative politics including during the heights of the Brexit wars working for the 'European Research Group' I thought I had enough insight and material to write my own political history from a unique perspective– but then who would believe it? I settled some time ago for setting out the accounts here and here in the Critic magazine, which give a flavour as to what we were up against in trying to push a reluctant Tory Party to accept Brexit.
What I eventually decided to do was something rather different. Write a novel. A novel where I could throw in all the anecdotes and atmosphere of the Brexit period within Parliament, while not being outwardly about Brexit at all.
I decided that to be realistic it had to be based on a similarly existential piece of legislation, with a hostile power and a foreign policy entanglement. This took me from the inner sanctums of Parliament to China and beyond. The MPs coping under this pressure, the characters, the good the bad and the indifferent. Some may be recognisable, some scenes were based on meetings I organised.
There was however a second reason for writing the book. The danger an aggressive and manipulative power like China can have on our open society.
Starting with the premise that I would write a book along the lines of the 'Invasion Scare' novels of the pre WWI era – a 'The Riddle of the Sands' in the Far East as it were – I asked myself what would a sophisticated and ruthless state like China do if they wished to invade Taiwan? They would not wait for the West to react but seek to remove them from the calculus. And in the UK, we have seen this scenario play out twice since 2016. Firstly, when UK and Conservative Party politics went into melt down over Brexit and again with Covid. A China seeking to invade Taiwan might get lucky with a docile or indisposed US President (I chose a President Harris!), but there would also be the comparatively minor powers of the UK and Australia to deal with. Fortunately for China pouring money into the fault lines of UK politics could easily push the UK into chaos. A range of bad actors with their eyes on lucrative careers willing to sabotage key Government policies at the behest of a foreign power? Not that unbelievable I should think. I would be amazed if China was not already in possession of many senior UK officials and former politicians. Indeed, after I wrote it various allegations of Chinese spying in Parliament came to light. But this is a novel...
So, I had a baddie in China, a foreign policy fault line, a key piece of existential legislation. I added a Tory leadership contest full of the usual range of bad and good actors, some partially recognisable some not, and of course a Foreign Chinese Spy. Throw in standing for Parliament in Sunderland, Northern Irish and Scottish politics and it started to come together.
Up against this lot I roughly recreated the cast of the Brexit years, a group of backbenchers seeking to do the right thing. The main protagonist who gets drawn into the Chinese confrontation having been singled out from a group on a routine trip to Singapore. Throw in some murders and factional Chinese infighting and the protagonist Richard Reynolds does not know where to turn. He quickly realises that there were few in the British State he could trust. Surviving murders and blackmail he eventually hatches his own plan to try and prevent a war and end the threats to the UK.
While these themes may be recognisable and of interest the followers of the Bruges Group the novel should work on different levels. Primarily it is hopefully a believable and entertaining read which keeps the reader guessing on a journey through a political crisis. But secondly it does seek to highlight the threats our soggy establishment is up against in the form of China. Rather than (as is traditional) the hero coming out of the ranks of the establishment in this book its anything but. It also hopefully sheds some rather dramatic light on the goings on in Parliament, the characters and the ability for dedicated MPs to make a difference. And lastly it also hopefully shows that the UK for all its faults is still capable of making a difference. In the book a UK carrier strike group, providentially positioned, the (still British) Chagos islands as a strategic link, Cyprus and the UK's allies in the form of Australia are all present. These all make the UK unique and still worthy of an international political thriller.