Public Faces

by Harold Nicolson

In the midst of a Middle Eastern power struggle, the British develop unexpectedly powerful bombs and intercontinental rockets. The latter are sent over enemy and allied territories alike to demonstrate Britain's might, and a test bomb accidentally destroys a U.S. cruiser, a United Fruit ship, and much of Florida. A renegade minister boldly seizes the initiative in the furor which follows and imposes universal disarmament. The earliest atomic muscular disarmament novel.

287 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.

Reviews

[Flob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a quite remarkable book. It is, I think, currently out of print and that is a shame, I found an original Penguin from a second hand bookshop. It was published in 1932 and, I suppose, written in 1931. It is concerned with a world crisis set in 1939 with a world on the brink of world war but no Hitler in sight, the somewhat incompetent badies are the British. Like others, I was seriously surprised to see that rocket powered aeroplanes form part of the story and also the atomic bomb. However, for me the real pleasure in this novel is the description of the British Government at work. And Nicolson was in a position to know. The Foreign Secretary is a man called Bullinger who for me has all the distant superiority and 'born to rule' certainty of Lord Halifax. Can it be a that Halifax was a model for this character? Halifax isn't mentioned elsewhere even though Churchill is, Baldwin, Chamberlain, Mosely, Belisha et al. Certainly if you are interested in how the British Government functioned in the lead up to WW2 this is the book for you. It is also a ripping yarn.

Incidentally he also includes man made climate change and presents some of the language changes that appear in Clockwork Orange. This is a remarkable book.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight up, Public Faces is the book I'd hand to somebody who says they don't like reading. Harold Nicolson keeps the sentences short, the jokes quick, and the pages turning, no fluff. It's not deep, but it's honest. Perfect for reluctant readers, skip if you want literary heavy lifting.

[David P · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Public Faces" was written in 1932, a fictional novel about diplomacy in 1939, within a framework of science fiction (credible scj-fi, not fantasy!). The author Harold Nicolson was a diplomat, and he spins his tale around British government maneuvering and intrigues of the 1930s. As a prediction of the future (from 1932), it is a mixed success: no Hitler, no Stalin, no Great Depression. Then, again, it predicts the rocket airplane and the atomic bomb--the latter pretty accurately by what we now know (more like an H-bomb, really).
It is this prophetic component which merits its 4 stars; in other ways, it may seem a bit dated, perhaps because it IS faithful about the (rather peaceful!) 1930s background. For something completely different, it is definitely worth reading now.

[J]

Wrong description from Goodreads... This 1933 novel imagines Britain getting an atomic bomb first in 1939 (and no Hitler in sight in Germany, for that matter).