When The Kissing Had To Stop by Constantine Fitz Gibbon - Near Future Thriller Review

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I'm British, and I'm old enough to remember the Cold War - or maybe we should now be calling it Cold War 1, in light of current events. I was a young man when the Berlin Wall was knocked down. When I was a teenager, some people (including myself) still considered nuclear war or Soviet invasion to be serious possibilities. So I was always interested in the small sub-genre of fiction that portrayed Soviet takeovers of Britain. "When The Kissing Had To Stop" is one of those classic works of fiction that I've heard about for years, but only recently had the chance to read. First published in 1960, it created quite a stir at the time, and has been reprinted several times. It's not as remembered now, though. Set a few years in the author's future, so probably about the mid 60s, this novel is about the events leading up to a takeover of Britain by the Soviet Union. At the start of the novel, the political situation is clearly already deteriorating, with the police employing squads of armed paramilitary thugs to break up the almost-constant race riots that are taking place in London, as well as to suppress peaceful demonstrations. Britain as a society seems to be in period of decadence, with prostitution and adult clubs rife - the author seems to think that sexual permissiveness is either a symptom, or a cause, of a society being weakened to the point where it's ready to fall. Not a point of view that I share, but I believe an intelligent person should be able to read books that express differing opinions. An anti-nuclear weapons movement has gained popular support in opposition to American missile bases being established in the United Kingdom, and an opportunist politician called Rupert Page-Gorman has publically attached himself to this movement. The leaders of this movement are mostly a woolly-minded, over-idealistic group, but both Page-Gorman and the Soviet government are able to use it to advance their own positions. The Soviet governent surprise the world with the announcement that they're going to unilaterally dispose of their nuclear weapons, in phases, starting with some rocket bases in Poland, and invite other people to do the same. This provides such a wave of public support for the Ban the Bomb movement that in a general election, politicians who publically support the movement are swept to power. A new government forms, and Page-Gorman gains a powerful position within it. Unknown to most others, Page-Gorman is also in league with the Soviets, who are going to help him gain power in return for being able to base troops in Britain. Page-Gorman is personally amibitious, and sees himself as being able to outmanouver the Communists once he has established himself as dictator. But the Communists aren't stupid, and they view Page-Gorman as a disposable pawn. Opposing Page-Gorman and his Communist associates are a group of aristocrats, business leaders and senior military men. This book is very much of its time, with the heroes being mostly uper-class men, women being empty-headed love interests, and the working class hardly being mentioned (except for the tragic story of one young woman who ends up being victimised by both the outgoing and incoming regimes). Strangely, the most relatable character for me was a young homosexual graduate of Cambridge University, who had been a minor Communist spy a few years previously, before defecting to Russia, upsetting his employers and being sent to a hellish labour camp. Extracted from the Gulag, this character is sent back to Britain by the Soviet intelligence service to try to get close to Page-Gorman and act as an agent of influence - a job that he doesn't do very well at. Despite having nothing in common with this guy or his background, I felt sorry for him. But I had trouble distinguishing some of the other characters from each other, too many of them were the same generic "type". I found the details of Britain's decline into authoritarianism, as Page-Gorman manouvres his way into becoming Prime Minister (and dictator), utterly believable. The United Kingdom does have a very centralised political system, and there's been an authoritarian trend in politics for decades, so a fascistj-type takeover is not beyond imagination. I found the details of the subsequent Soviet takeover less believable - they get some secret police types into Britain in the guise of disarmament inspectors, and they also get some of their agents close to Page-Gorman, which is fair enough. But the final invasion at the end, when they fly several airborne regiments into Britain with no apparent miliary response, isn't really explained enough. The plot depends on the Communists always making the right moves, and both the anti-Communists and Page-Gorman making fatal errors at just the wrong times. So yes, it could have been better, but it was still an entertaining read as far as it went. 5/10 I'm glad I've read this book, but I probably won't bother with it again.