John Preston

Behind the scenes at the Brighton bombing

Seen from the viewpoint of an IRA terrorist and a hotel manager, Jonathan Lee’s novel High Dive imaginatively recreates the carnage at the 1984 Tory conference in Brighton

issue 24 October 2015

Sadly, I can’t see it catching on, but one of the notable things about Jonathan Lee’s new novel is that it features a fleeting appearance by John Redwood. The late Geoffrey Howe is there too, distractedly eating fishcakes as he holds forth on the difference between humans and animals. Redwood, Howe and the rest of Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet have gathered in Brighton’s Grand Hotel on the eve of the Tory conference in October 1984.

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