Fifty-First State - Hardcover

A native of England, Hilary Bailey was educated in thirteen schools before attending Cambridge. Married with children, she entered the world of 1960s science fiction, writing some twenty tales that were published in Britain, the USA, France and Germany. Her first novel was published in 1975 and she has since authored ten more.

English writer Bailey presents a wryly chilling, totally entertaining, and all-too-believable tale of political machination that explores the quest for order and stability that underpins repressive regimes. It’s 2017 and 80,000 American troops are stationed on British soil in an occupation rooted in the U.S. president’s scheme to replace the prime minister with “one of ours. . . . He backs us militarily and gets rid of the nests of Islamic vipers in their cities.” With nothing less than her aim to “subvert the government of Great Britain,” the prime minister manipulates and exploits the Brits’ fear of terrorist bombings, knowing many citizens are “more anxious about getting to work safely on public transport than civil rights.” And some of those jobs stem from the occupation. But when a U.S. military action against protesters goes dreadfully wrong and bullets fly, the world sees the face of a sobbing young British boy on his knees, “covered in his mother’s blood” as he gazes up into the face of an American soldier. Will this tear Britain apart? --Whitney Scott