I read this book for the Mount
TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.
The Power House
– William Haggard
With some action sequences, this is a political novel
from 1966 written by a Tory Englishman. Haggard knew how large organizations worked
because he served in the military and worked in government full-time and wrote
thrillers part-time. Haggard was what people like William F. Buckley used to
call “a man of the right” so he assumes in a democracy the mediocre mass must
be ruled by an elite in both the public and private sectors in order to
preserve the status quo, whatever that might be at the moment.
Haggard’s contempt for the left is palpable, but he has a
grudging respect for the communists since they have among them leaders and
administrators who are, like men of the right, hard-nosed and resolute
realists. A character in this novel muses "The Time of the Left would come
perhaps, but it wouldn't be … the intellectuals, the professional washed-out
rebels, but ruthless and determined men" who made revolution, not
wishy-washy democratic socialists.
Haggard’s series hero is Charles Russell, the head of a
secret agency that minds matters of national security that fall between the
cracks of domestic and international departments. Russell is approached by a
rep of the PM with information that an MP, a member of the loony left due to
character flaws, may defect to the Soviet Union. The PM wants to keep the
affair quiet due to a looming election. Russell does not see the PM’s political
imperatives as part of his domain. The PM is clearly based on Harold Wilson, a Labour
politician, who constantly postured as a man of the people but had to keep the sullen
progressive wing at bay, mollified, inveigled, distracted, fighting over
crumbs, etc. Readers from New York and Germany will nod their heads in
recognition at this portrait of a party leader.
The plot features twists and turns that will seem
familiar, if a lot more exciting, to anybody who has worked in an
information-ridden environment that is constantly in flux as to new rules, incidents
and personalities. It’s very much in keeping with the old-timey conservative
belief that ‘tis folly to expect human endeavor to be unaffected by the bland merciless
workings of time and chance but irresponsible for an adult to depend on luck
for happy outcomes. Do what you can with the tools you have, but be realistic
about what is not up to you.
Other Haggard Novels
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