Riots, politicians and tabloids
22 Thursday Aug 2024
Tags
awards, journalism, knife crime, police, politics, social media, tabloids
RIOTS, POLITICIANS AND TABLOIDS
When you feel helpless, you want to do something – and what I do is write.
A little while ago, I told my (then) agent I was writing a satirical novel about tabloids and politicians who spark riots over knife crime. Guess what he told me?
He said nobody would be interested.
The Breaking of Liam Glass went on to be nominated for two international awards and more than once #1 in its genres on Amazon. And it’s – sadly – still relevant here in the UK and around the world.
Riots, politicians and tabloids caught up in the maelstrom
Sadly too, there’s nothing new about riots. In Liam Glass, I wanted to try to pin down not so much the big players, the Trumps, Musks, Farages of this world, but the people beneath them that allow bad things to happen.
A story of journalists, politicians, civil servants, police, caught up in the maelstrom. Their words amplified by social media – often for the worst. The comic-tragic way that actions have inadvertent effects. The law of unintended consequences in dramatic form.
I wanted to see them for the flawed, confused human beings that they are.
Sowing the whirlwind
Politicians who sow the whirlwind for electoral gain. Tabloid journalists, afraid of losing their jobs if they don’t toe the line. Editors fighting for clickbait audiences at all cost.
And the people who believe what they say. And act upon it.
I started with anger, but as the story grew I found these people strangely fascinating. The novel evolved into a thriller and a satire.
And a look into the mirror, because all of us share some of their flaws – all of us can at times be hypocritical, well-meaning, self-seeking, surprised by our own actions.
If you haven’t read Liam Glass yet, I think you’ll find it an interesting, funny, sad, take on the kind of events we are seeing nowadays. Today in the UK. But also around the world in recent years.
Tell me what you think. And what you feel about the recent events and the people who have fuelled them.
Tell people what you think