Power Play

(Paperback)

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There are no real enemies, no real fear only those of our own creation. Another brilliant and thrilling adventure from the co-host of BBCs Newsnight.
The Anglo-American Special Relationship is in deep trouble. The ambitious vice-president, Bobby Black, who wields greater influence over foreign affairs than his titular boss, has fallen out with the British PM. The young British Ambassador to Washington knows he must step in. He is in a delicate position howeverwith the expectations of the British Government on him,as well as those of his father-in-law, the PM.

In a bid to orchastrate some good PR, Black is invited to England, accompanied by a plane load of assistants and CIA security. Guided by his aristocratic host, he goes out to the moors and disappears. He is not seen again until humiliating photographs begin to appear, and then again, silence.

The Americans are outraged that their VP has gone missing on British soil and the relationship between the two countries seem irrevocably damaged. But what can be done Missing but not confirmed dead is a constitutional grey area, and should Black reappear, can he ever be trusted again

Reviews

Praise for POWER PLAY:

This is politics on both sides of the Atlantic, served up with lan, cynicism and style
Daily Mail

Praise for A SCANDALOUS MAN:

'A Scandalous Man is a compelling book, its political sophistication made luminous with wisdom, sympathy and brilliant story-telling' Bernard Cornwell

While Eslers story is sweeping in scope and complex both politically and emotionally, its always accessible and fast-paced Daily Mirror

This is a cracking story, well told, with a conclusion that is as shocking as it is inevitableCant wait for the next one.
Daily Express

Tautly plotted and thoroughly entertaining narrative which neatly dovetails fictional characters with historical events.
Daily Mail

An acute and poignant account of the impact politics has on flesh and blood. Arena

Author Bio

Gavin Esler is an author and award-winning broadcaster with the BBC. He is currently a presenter on the BBCs flagship news and current affairs programme, Newsnight, and he is also familiar to audiences around the world on BBC World Television where he hosts Dateline London and numerous other programmes, including Hardtalk. Gavin won a Sony Gold Award for his Radio Four Programme Letters from Guantanamo, an investigation of the position of those held without trial in the so-called War on Terror. He has also won a coveted Royal Television Society Award for his reporting in the United States, and has recently completed a radio documentary series for BBC World Service and BBC Radio Four, The Clinton Years. Gavin has interviewed numerous heads of state and government including President Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, King Abdullah of Jordan, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, former President Rafsanjani of Iran and Jacques Chirac of France. His other major BBC interviews for Arts programmes include guests as varied as Dolly Parton, Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz to Donald Sutherland, Stephen Frears, Seamus Heaney, Julian Barnes, V S Naipaul, Jane Fonda, Daniel Barenboim, Alaa al Aswany and Javier Marias. He is also a frequent contributor and columnist on newspapers and magazines, most notably The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the Spectator, the New Statesman and The Scotsman. For eight years Gavin Esler was the BBCs Chief North America Correspondent based in Washington. Hr coordinated BBC coverage of the Iran-Contra hearings, and was accredited to cover the presidencies of George H W Bush and Bill Clinton as a White House correspondent. He commentated live for BBC television and radio on the inaugurations of Clinton and George W Bush, plus he anchored BBC Television coverage of the Monica Lewinsky / Clinton impeachment proceedings. He has also reported on international affairs from all over the world including the Brazilian rainforest, the Aleutian Islands, Russia, the Middle East and China. He is the author of The United States of Anger, an examination of the discontent within the United States directed towards the political system, plus a series of novels including A Scandalous Man (2008) and Powerplay (2009.) Powerplay, published in Harper Collins paperback in May 2010, is set at the end of the Obama administration. It tells the story of the decline in the US-British special relationship as seen through the eyes of Alex Price, the British ambassador to Washington, at a time of crisis. The British, Scottish and American governments find themselves having a huge row over terrorism. To patch things up the British invite the new American vice president to come on a shooting trip to Scotland where he disappears. Gavin Esler is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by the University of Kent at Canterbury.