10 Leaders Britain Never Had

By Tom Black

'Great man' history is flawed. But it can be fun.

A group of alternate history authors try their hand at imagining different figures at the top of the British establishment. Be they Prime Ministers or something less conventional, the men and women in these pages inhabit very different worlds to that in which we live.

Could Britain have had a female PM much earlier in its history? Who might emerge to lead Britain from the ashes of a fascist dictatorship? If Militant had taken over the Labour Party, who might be in Downing Street today?

Sea Lion Press favourites including Jack Tindale and Ed Thomas are joined by newcomers in this volume of vignettes edited by Tom Black.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sea Lion Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386096979

Book preview

10 Leaders Britain Never Had

Edited by Tom Black

Foreword

These are all self-contained stories. None take place in the same universe as each other, not even those written by the same authors. To collect and edit them has been a privilege, and one that I hope to have again – this is Sea Lion Press’ first collection of vignettes, but I do not think it will be our last.

The writing and storytelling talent contained in this book is stellar. While other such collections have been released before (and some played a part in developing my love of alternate history as a genre), the extent to which the authors herein have gone off the beaten track is impressive in the extreme. Well-known figures do feature, of course. But so too do the also-rans of history, the background figures, and – in some cases – the thwarted and forgotten. And where the protagonists are well-known, the world they inhabit is certainly not. I point you towards Paul Hynes’ ‘Ed Dawn’ for a clear example of that…

In another work I was involved with, Shuffling the Deck, I speculated that circumstance, not ‘great men’, dictates the impact figures have on history. This book could be seen as arguing the opposite – that a certain leader here or there could change things – but I would say that it does not. In most cases, the protagonists here are who they are because the worlds they inhabit are already diverged from ours.

There is a fine art to the alternate history vignette. To be able to build a whole world around a single scene is a great skill. My own offering here – ‘Come back!’ shows it is not my forte, but Ed Thomas in particular, in three very different stories, presents highly altered British history simply through one conversation or speech. There is also room for comedy or amusement here – Tom Anderson’s ‘The First Debate’ is a wonderful guessing game throughout, and James Hall’s ‘An Honourable Man’ is just plain fun. For reasons that will become clear on reading it, it is in fact a bonus extra chapter – there in fact eleven, not ten, leaders discussed herein. We hope to continue this tradition of having an extra slightly off-piste story in each collection.

Thanks must go to Ed, Tom, Jack, Chris, Liam, Paul, and James for their contributions and assistance in putting this volume together. Jack Tindale deserves full credit for another excellent cover. Special credit must go to Ed Thomas for, if not inventing the format, popularising vignettes as a means of building new worlds in one single chapter.

Tom Black

Founder, Sea Lion Press

The First Debate

Tom Anderson

These debates will be an opportunity to start re-engaging people with politics... I hope an open, honest and vigorous debate will encourage more people to have their say at the ballot box.

David, Nick and Gordon walked onto the stage and took their positions at their lectern. Well, that was how David called them in his head. His advisors had assured him that no matter how bitter partisanship might get, mentally referring to his opposite numbers by their Christian names would lead to a more relaxed manner which the voters these days apparently loved. As with everything else that was in fashion in politics these days, it had come from the last American presidential campaign.

David missed Dimbleby’s introduction as he settled behind his lectern. Well, it would just have been the usual guff anyway. He gave an aside glance at the other party leaders. They both stood behind lecterns of their own, identical in every respect except for the monochrome party logos on the front. A democracy of ideas, well, if one ignored the parties that had been excluded.

His reverie meant he almost missed his cue, and he hastily pulled himself together. This country stands at a crossroads, he intoned. We are facing the greatest financial crisis for generations. It is more crucial than ever that we have the right hand on the tiller of the ship of state. He stared intently into the camera lens, another technique his advisors had got across. Sometimes when a ship flounders amid the waves, the worst thing a captain can do is try to wrestle control of that tiller, for he will inevitably make things worse. He cannot fully see or understand the shapes of the waves and the complexity of the environment he finds his ship in. So it is with finance. Any attempt by a government to interfere with the forces of the market are doomed to failure. Only the indefatiguable principle of free trade, keeping only a loose hand on that tiller and allowing the ship to right itself and ride out the waves, will succeed. We cannot risk dashing ourselves on the rocks, as we have already come too close to doing. He subsided. The naval metaphor should play well with those who had accused him of wanting to cut the new warship orders on the Clyde. 

The truth was, he was nervous. He shouldn’t have been. He was experienced and it had been predicted that he would be by far the best positioned to benefit from this debate given his performances in Parliament. In a way that was the problem: he had more to lose. Oh, no-one expected anything spectacular from the gaffe-prone Prime Minister, but that meant that merely failing to fall over would be counted as a victory for him…and speak of the devil, Gordon was speaking now. …not the time for uncertainty. Only clear continuity of government, keeping on the right path which my government has guided this country through the recession, will deliver us to the sunlit uplands of the future. Referencing his own election posters, how gauche. 

And now Nick was speaking. We have seen once again the failure of the old two parties, he said pompously. You, the voters— he looked even more deeply into the camera than David had managed, —have seen this many times. But for the first time you have a way out. You have a choice. You have a party that will fight and work for you, not for established interests. Politics for the people, constructive politics, not a Punch and Judy show. Fixing the economy so that it will benefit ordinary working people, not bankers and the wealthy classes. That isn’t something you will get from either of my colleagues.

Colleagues, David