The journey towards my two Lightning Books novels, MBA and Time of Lies, started ten years ago. Since these satires sink their teeth into our worship of business fat-cats and post-truth British politics (respectively), I couldn’t avoid writing something pertinent to Donald Trump. The result is an 8,000-word novelette The Rats, which I’m making available free.
Ros March, a disabled lesbian mum and former Royal Marine, has just moved to Turnberry on Scotland’s west coast. Her cottage overlooks one of the world’s most famous golf courses as well as the scenic bird sanctuary Ailsa Craig.
But idylls deceive. Ailsa was once overrun by rats, which were exterminated at the end of the twentieth century. Ros’s landlord turns out to be a delusional Islamophobic misogynist who calls himself ‘Potus Two’. When Potus Two announces that both he and Ros will have the chance to meet the President on Turnberry’s hallowed grounds, Ros hatches a plan. Even a slim chance to do something about one of the biggest rats in the world is not something she will pass by.
Download or listen to The Rats free from 18 January 2018 here, or on YouTube or SoundCloud (duration: 1 hour). Or order it with extra commentary on Kindle for 99p plus tax. I hope you enjoy it and pass it on.
