Single Acts of Tyranny [Paperback]

Single acts of tyranny is set in the current day, but pre-supposes the South won the American civil war and there are now, two Americas, Northern and Confederate. Its major theme looks at how the politicians rule us, and how a large, high-taxing, high regulating government, will impoverish, weaken and ultimately make its people into docile chattels of the ruling elite. Government we are told serves the people; in fact dominates them as totally as any Roman emperor. The book s heroine is a black woman called Halle du Bois. This is unusual in literature and frankly, overdue. She is a successful Southern banker of mixed race aged thirty-two. In this book, the Confederacy didn t abolish slavery until the nineteen-thirties, so black women can still face issues of racism in differing forms in the two countries. She is asked to negotiate a political treaty with the North. The villain of the piece is John Legree, a Boston Brahmin in his fifties. He is very much old money and is a political fixer come spin doctor, think of some of the Nu-Labour figures of the recent past. An influential figure in the Northern government, he is morally flawed, and degenerates throughout the book. He interacts with Halle during the trade treaty early in the book. They dislike each other and represent the extremes of each system that is explored. The third major character is James Emerson, a freelance journalist. He is an intelligent and confident individual, but something of an outsider, as he will not play-ball with the Northern government s media domination, despite living there. He and Halle develop a relationship. The principal thrust of the book looks at styles and themes of government and how this affects education, health and welfare, but it also explores issues of race as heroine is black, the challenges women face in commerce through a strong female lead character, female strength and sexuality, parental relationships and control of the media. The Northern government, as will become clear, is in fact a metaphor, for the current British governing and media elite; indeed the examples quoted, are verifiable facts from the modern British state. The Southern administration is the proposed antidote to it. The book is an indictment of the prevailing government structure regardless of which party happens to be in power. The title comes from a quote from Thomas Jefferson when he said Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day, but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing a people to slavery This strikes me as apt and I hope the book will change the way you think.