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20 March 2018
“Actually Brexit means a mayfly’s mating dance. Or the shavings left over from
a carving made out of American maple. Or the fastener on my wife’s purse.”
– From chapter 4 of Never Going to Happen by Anders Teller
The above extract is taken from a leaflet produced by Stay and Prosper, a fictional anti-Brexit campaign group that features in Never Going to Happen, the new novel by UK-based writer Anders Teller (paperback ISBN: 978-0-9957224-3-9, Kindle ASIN: B07B79CSJL, book page link: amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B79CSJL/).
The comments are the group’s ironic response to the oft-repeated mantra “Brexit means Brexit”. Yet according to Peter Rowlands, the British author behind the pen-name Anders Teller, “This is not a Brexit book. It’s a mystery drama, with all that you’d expect from one.”
In fact, in Never Going to Happen Teller (Peter Rowlands) intermingles the contradictions of the Brexit saga with many of the classic ingredients of an intelligent, fast-paced thriller. “You can read and enjoy it without knowing or caring a single thing about politics,” he says. “But the shadow of Brexit looms over the plot, and it opened the way for me to have some fun – speculating about the forces driving political change across the world, and the lengths some people might go to in order to intervene.”
On the face of it, the story is one of self-discovery. The leading character, one-time journalist Tom, is recovering from a car crash, and can’t remember how or why it happened. For much of the story he’s looking for answers, while at the same time trying to appease a former boss and failing to recognise a looming crisis in his personal life. “It’s a fast read with a strong back story about relationships,” Rowlands says, “and it ends in a ‘big shock’ that I’m confident few will predict.”
However, in the background, warring factions within the Stay and Prosper campaign group have widely differing ideas about how to head off Brexit, and as Tom’s personal drama builds in pace and action, he realises that he’s trodden on the toes of people who will stop at nothing to get their way. Subtly at first, his own story and wider national and international developments become inextricably intertwined.
“Why Brexit?” Peter asks. “Well, the subject offers such a rich vein of potential conflict. It raises fundamental questions about democracy and freedom of speech – not just in the UK, but also worldwide, especially in America since Trump’s election.
“I’ve tried to give an airing to both sides of the Brexit argument, but if my own feelings spill out at all, it’s over the bullying tactics we’ve seen since the referendum, and the challenges to freely expressed opinion. The very idea of questioning the result has come to be portrayed widely as an act of moral turpitude, and that’s one of the most frighteningly repressive pieces of political manipulation I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
So does the novel suggest some kind of resolution to the conflicting arguments behind Brexit, or hypothesise an outcome to the exit process? “No, that’s not the point,” Rowlands says. “First and foremost, I wanted to write an entertaining contemporary drama. If it makes readers think a bit harder about the damage that’s being done to society under cover of the polemic, that’s a bonus.”
Peter Rowlands, a long-time business writer and editor specialising in logistics, switched to the world of fiction three years ago, and has already self-published three other mystery novels under his own name.
The first, Alternative Outcome, has had thousands of Kindle downloads, and is described by one reviewer as “a fast-paced mind-bending intellectual thriller” and by another as “a book you hoped would never end”. They all share the same transparent prose, taut, economical style, strong characters and extensive use of natural dialogue.
Why the pen-name Anders Teller? According to Rowlands, “Although Never Going to Happen is a mystery thriller, like my previous books, I felt that the political back story put it in a slightly different league, so a separate identity made sense.” Is there supposed to be a Scandinavian angle? “Not at all, he explains wryly. “The name just suggests ‘Another Narrator’.”
On the question of where he stands on Brexit, Peter says: “Read the book and see what you think!” However, he adds: “I sometimes wonder why no one has so far set up a remain campaign group like the one in my book. That might be a clue.”
ends
PRESS e-BOOK REVIEW COPIES OF THE FULL BOOK
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Title: Never Going to Happen
Author: Anders Teller
Publisher: Topham Publishing
ISBN (paperback edition): 978-0-9957224-3-9
Amazon ASIN (Kindle edition): B07B79CSJL
Pages (approx): 400
Price: £7.99 (paperback), £2.99 (Kindle e-book)
Where to buy: Exclusively from Amazon
Book page link (UK): amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B79CSJL/
Book page link (US): amazon.com/dp/B07B79CSJL/
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