The Churchill Memorandum

by Sean Gabb

This is an alternate history comedy/thriller so unfashionable that its first publication in 2011 was the excuse for purging its author from the Conservative Party, for getting his mainstream novel contracts cancelled, and for trying to get him sacked from his teaching job. Was it worth all that? You may care to see for yourself.Imagine: Hitler dies in a car crash in March 1939. No World War II. No US-Soviet duopoly of the world. No slide into the gutter for England.Fast-forward to 1959. America’s a fascist horrorville, run by madmen with a fleet of black helicopters. Germany is prospering under corrupt and geriatric Fuhrer Goering. Soviet Russia is…well, Soviet Russia.The big winner is Britain – free, rich, almost, though not quite, as great an imperial power as in the golden days of Queen Victoria.Enter Anthony Markham – half-Indian, closet gay. He’s also a hyper-patriot who worships England. He has a biography to write of a dead and largely forgotten Winston Churchill, and is coming back from America, where the old drunk left his papers. Little does he realise, as he returns to his safe, orderly England, that he carries, somewhere in his luggage, an “object” that can be used to destroy England and the whole structure of bourgeois civilisation as it has been gradually restored since 1918.Who is trying to kill Anthony Markham?Who really is Major Stanhope?Where did Dr Pakeshi get his bag of money?What is the connection between Michael Foot, Leader of the British Communist Party, and Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan?Why is Ayn Rand in an American prison, and Nathaniel Branden living in a South London bedsit?Why is Alan Greenspan dragged off and shot in the first chapter?Where does Enoch Powell fit into the story?Above all, what is The Churchill Memorandum? What terrible secrets does it contain?All will be revealed—but not till after Markham has gone on the run through an England unbombed, uncentralised, still free, and still mysterious.From the Reviews“...[Gabb] has written a work of alternate history entitled The Churchill Memorandum. If you want to see the world through a pair of very different ideological glasses, I suggest you give it a read. If nothing else, it is guaranteed to blow your mind.” Max Lindh, Sea Lion Press“Y’all, this book is further down the rabbit-hole than Alice, and I dearly wish that instead of a review wherein I praise the author for his audacity and imagination, I was publishing verbatim the notes I took. You would not believe this book.” Bella Gerens“The novel is so tightly-knit that it’s hard to say anything about it without giving too much away. Sean writes in a manner that has you smelling the surroundings (not always a pleasant experience) and feeling the grit of asphalt and concrete under your feet. “Noirer than noir” might be an accurate description….” L. Neil Smith“The Churchill Memorandum is one of the more sophisticated, cynical and well-written takes on the alternative-history theme that I’ve read.” Jerome Tucille“There really are no good guys [in this novel].

Genres: Fiction

235 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2011

About the author

Sean Gabb is the author of twenty books and around five hundred essays.

Under the name Richard Blake, he has written six historical novels for Hodder & Stoughton. These have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Slovak, Hungarian, Chinese and Indonesian.

Under his own name, he has written four novels. His other books are mainly about libertarian politics.

He is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance, a human rights and educational charity based in the United Kingdom.

He also teaches. His main experience has been in higher education. More recently, though, he has discovered a talent for teaching Latin to primary school children. This is a talent he intends to develop.

He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read of an alternative history diverging in 1940 from ours.
Centering around the Churchill biographist Dr Markham who is caught up in a plot for the future of the British Empire. The economic changes are the most fun: maglev trains in 1959 with roads in ruin, decentralized electricty, airships, heated pavements and famous economic and historc figures in new roles!

[C Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The funny thing about homecomings is the momentary sense of being simultaneously in two different time streams. There’s the knowledge of everything said and done while away. There’s the feeling of having never been away…”

Returning from the USA with an apparently innocuous case full of miscellaneous notes and records, renown historian and Churchill biographer Anthony Markham is oblivious about the ordeal that will soon befall him. The year is 1959, but Eisenhower is nowhere in sight. Harry Anslinger is president. Gandhi did not survive his most fatal hunger strike, Hitler and Churchill died prematurely, Goring controls Germany, World War 2 never happened and the Nazis have made peace with the Jews. Within this alternate timeline, Markham is on the constant run from a cloak-and-dagger conspiracy intent on capturing him and the mysterious case he is compelled to defend. But why is Markham at the centre of this conspiracy? What were the ‘Pressburg Accords’ and who is so desperate to get hold of them? And what do Enoch Powell, Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand, Vicky Richardson, Harold Macmillan, Michael Foot, the British media, the Soviet Russia and the Indian National Party have to do with it all?

This short thriller by British libertarian luminary Sean Gabb is a recommended read for two reasons: the fast-paced espionage adventure that makes up the story, keeping the reader guessing at every turn, and the alternate future (or alternate past) that frames it. While this reviewer is at a loss for accurate comparisons as far as the mystery/thriller genre goes, The Churchill Memorandum is a gripping, suspenseful and rewarding adventure nested in a bemusingly alternative Albion that never was.

Original review at Last Exit to Albion

[Adam Selby-Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Libertarian Fantasy masquerading poorly as Alternate History

One of the worst novels I have ever read, and the worst alternate history story that I have ever encountered - and I've read some of the Kirov stories

Alleging to be an alternate history story about the consequences of no Second World War and no Churchill in power, what you actually get is a long-winded piece of Libertarian Fantasy covered by a fig-leaf of counter-factual history.

It is 1959 but we have airships and Maglev trains? Heated pavements and rocket-ships? 'Bullet-trams'? Manage to get past these weird issues and you'll come across incredibly dubious, two-dimensional characters (the sole Indian character is always noted as arriving by the smell of curry that he brings with him), and an eventual breakdown into farce, when who is alleged to be the 1959 version of Michael Foot in this reality turns into a strawman and rants about the joys of communism and how terrible individual freedom is while he boils rent-boys alive, watched by Harold Macmillan.

It may be free at the moment, but avoid anyway

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, fun alternative history.

[Daniel Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Churchill Memorandum by Sean Gabb is a thriller set in an alternative timeline to our own. The major difference that Sean explores, is what would happen to the United Kingdom if World War 2 had been avoided by something as simple as Hitler’s vehicle crashing. The differences that have occurred as a result of this is what makes this alternative timeline so striking, and as a result of this, it will certainly appeal to any libertarian simply because of the differences that are explored. The pound sterling has not been inflated, so the pound is still worth a pound; there is still some semblance of a free market, and there is none of that ridiculous political correctness.

As for the story, it gets in to the action fairly early in the book, and the story is very good at creating suspense throughout. The choice of villains in this book are very interesting, and the story uses real characters to show the more traitorous among the various communists and politicians who were around during the time period that the book is set in. The main character, Anthony Markham, is very interesting, and his development throughout the book is well done. My only criticism of the story, is that Sean could have gone in to more detail around the background of some of the organisations that come up during the story, as some readers may know very little about the people behind them, so covering them more could have given the story a slightly stronger background. However, this didn’t ruin the story in the slightest, and it will no doubt be a very enjoyable read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller; particularly so if you lived through the time period that the book is set in, which isn’t something that I have done.

I highly recommend this book to libertarians and conservatives alike, as both will find themes in this book that they will enjoy. However, you’d best avoid this book if you are a fan of political correctness, as Dr Gabb uses the theme of anti-pc frequently in this book, which I found to be highly refreshing compared to the works of most authors. The Churchill Memorandum will only set you back by about £10, and even less if you own a Kindle, so this is a definite must buy if the themes that this review has explored excite you. I am already looking forward to reading another of Dr Gabb’s books in the near future, and I hope you enjoy ‘The Churchill Memorandum’ as much as I have.

[Peter Cresswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. From first page to last, just awful.