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The Aachen Memorandum
When Dr Horatio Lestoq, All Souls Prize Fellow and freelance journalist, discovers the body of a 91-year-old Admiral in suspicious circumstance, he is soon on the trail of more than a murderer.For there is a scandal which goes to the very heart of the United States of Europe - the corrupt, bureaucratic, xenophobic Euro-superstate which has, in the 30 years since the Aachen Referendum, almost snuffed out British national identity.Buckingham Palace, now Attali House, is the regional headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The now-defunct Houses of Parliament have been renamed The Westminster Heritage, Amenity and Leisuredrome. Even Horatio's namesake has removed from his column in Delors Square.Can the overweight, snobbish, lecherous, asthmatic, cowardly Lestoq - the most unlikely of heroes - stay one stop ahead of his sinister pursuers? Is his new lover - Cleopatra Tallboys, the sexiest secret policewoman in Europol - all that she seems? Is it coincidental that William Mountbatten-Windsor, King of New Zealand and Pretender to his father's former throne, should be visiting London? Will the ghastly truth emerge of how British independence was extinguished by the all powerful European mega-state?In this gripping fictional debut, the historian Andrew Roberts has created an Orwellian Britain that is a frightening possibility.A thriller - and a warning to us all.
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First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
Andrew Roberts
79 books1,518 followersDr Andrew Roberts, who was born in 1963, took a first class honours degree in Modern History at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, from where he is an honorary senior scholar and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). He has written or edited twelve books, and appears regularly on radio and television around the world. Based in New York, he is an accomplished public speaker, and is represented by HarperCollins Speakers’ Bureau (See Speaking Engagements and Speaking Testimonials). He has recently lectured at Yale, Princeton and Stanford Universities and at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 16, 2020
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3351843.html
Right-wing historian Andrew Roberts wrote this in 1995, foreseeing a referendum twenty years later (2015 rather than 2016), won by a 52:48 majority, as a result of which Scotland splits from England, and Ireland is reunited; and incidentally the journalist Matthew D’Ancona was on the losing side, just as he was in our timeline. Oh yeah, the Speaker of the House of Commons at the time of the referendum is John Bercow (who in 1995 was not even an MP yet, though he was clearly on that path).
This being swivel-eyed future history, of course, the referendum is on the UK’s absorption into a United States of Europe, and the story is actually set another thirty years further into the future, in 2045, as our brave but admittedly unattractive hero pursues a documentary trail indicating that the referendum result was rigged by fiendish computer manipulation. SPOILER: The exiled King William returns from New Zealand to save the day.
It’s quite engagingly written, but even on its own terms the plot is bonkers - our hero, supposedly a famous forensic historian, has displayed little interest in his own family background, which creates space for some very silly revelations when he finds out certain crucial facts about his parents and grandparents. By the end I had completely lost track of who among our hero’s friends and relatives was on which side, let alone why.
Future London has had all vestiges of British nationalism brutally removed or renamed, which wasn’t especially funny when the Two Ronnies had the Tower of London renamed Barbara Castle by Britain’s new feminazi overlords, and isn’t very funny here. There are predictable authorial whines about political correctness. Most striking of all to today’s reader is the complete lack of technological progress in half a century. There are no mobile phones - everyone uses pagers - and the electronic communications depicted in the book were already well out of date by 1995 let alone 2015 (and forget about 2045).
The author may possibly have intended this as an Awful Warning of what the federal European superstate would look like, but it comes across as a squib by a posh but insecure boy who thinks he's having a laugh with his friends, but they are quite possibly sniggering at him rather than with him.
Right-wing historian Andrew Roberts wrote this in 1995, foreseeing a referendum twenty years later (2015 rather than 2016), won by a 52:48 majority, as a result of which Scotland splits from England, and Ireland is reunited; and incidentally the journalist Matthew D’Ancona was on the losing side, just as he was in our timeline. Oh yeah, the Speaker of the House of Commons at the time of the referendum is John Bercow (who in 1995 was not even an MP yet, though he was clearly on that path).
This being swivel-eyed future history, of course, the referendum is on the UK’s absorption into a United States of Europe, and the story is actually set another thirty years further into the future, in 2045, as our brave but admittedly unattractive hero pursues a documentary trail indicating that the referendum result was rigged by fiendish computer manipulation. SPOILER: The exiled King William returns from New Zealand to save the day.
It’s quite engagingly written, but even on its own terms the plot is bonkers - our hero, supposedly a famous forensic historian, has displayed little interest in his own family background, which creates space for some very silly revelations when he finds out certain crucial facts about his parents and grandparents. By the end I had completely lost track of who among our hero’s friends and relatives was on which side, let alone why.
Future London has had all vestiges of British nationalism brutally removed or renamed, which wasn’t especially funny when the Two Ronnies had the Tower of London renamed Barbara Castle by Britain’s new feminazi overlords, and isn’t very funny here. There are predictable authorial whines about political correctness. Most striking of all to today’s reader is the complete lack of technological progress in half a century. There are no mobile phones - everyone uses pagers - and the electronic communications depicted in the book were already well out of date by 1995 let alone 2015 (and forget about 2045).
The author may possibly have intended this as an Awful Warning of what the federal European superstate would look like, but it comes across as a squib by a posh but insecure boy who thinks he's having a laugh with his friends, but they are quite possibly sniggering at him rather than with him.
June 20, 2024
Thriller über eine Verschwörung in einem geeinten Europa: Die Abstimmung, die Großbritannien hineinbrachte, war gezinkt (und vielleicht andere auch). Ging dem Autor wohl hauptsächlich darum, eine negative Zukunft über ein geeintes Europa zu zeichnen, in dem es Großbritannien schlecht geht. Klischeehafte Frauenfiguren runden das Buch ab.
July 25, 2019
A good thriller: reasonably exciting but not too original in plot or characters. However, what makes it stand out quite a lot is that, even in 1995 when it was published, it was unusual for a novel released by a mainstream publishing house to expose so ruthlessly the cynical & corrupt politics of the EU. It's possibly a foretaste of things to come if Britain doesn't disentangle itself from the EU.
The fanatical Remainers in the UK would love the premise of this novel to be true -- with one minor change. Rather than the Aachen referendum of the title being shown to be rigged in FAVOUR of the EU they would, naturally, want it to turn out have been rigged against it, the way some of them have claimed the UK's 2016 referendum was.
Since the ending includes Britain finally leaving the EU, it does have a certain feelgood factor about it, which, amongst other things, makes it worth reading.
The fanatical Remainers in the UK would love the premise of this novel to be true -- with one minor change. Rather than the Aachen referendum of the title being shown to be rigged in FAVOUR of the EU they would, naturally, want it to turn out have been rigged against it, the way some of them have claimed the UK's 2016 referendum was.
Since the ending includes Britain finally leaving the EU, it does have a certain feelgood factor about it, which, amongst other things, makes it worth reading.
January 27, 2018
This thriller posits a mid-21st century Britain under the control of Europe and a plot centred on the loss of freedom in the 1990s to the European Community and attempts to uncover the truth of the surrender of liberty which is hidden by fascist-type bureaucrats. The story is fine but the excessive twists unveiled in the final chapters destroy the impact, with far too many to be remotely plausible.
July 21, 2018
A quick , fun read . This is a thriller that’s all action with quite a few red herrings thrown in to the plot!
February 22, 2020
312 pages
April 11, 2022
Fun concept, but sadly the book is so badly written I almost wondered whether it was intentionally bad.
July 29, 2020
Südengland, 2045. In Kürze steht der 30. Jahrestag des historischen "Aachen-Referendums" an. Damals wurde über die Bildung der "Vereinigten Staaten von Europa" entschieden. Die Nationalstaaten wurden in "Regionen" umgewandelt. Diskriminierung und Nationalismus werden streng geahndet, das Leben ist durch Direktiven geregelt, viele Bücher und Filme stehen auf der "Abgeraten"-Liste, der gläserne Mensch ist Wirklichkeit, politisch korrektes "Euro-Sprech" hat zahlreiche Redewendungen abgelöst. Der König ist vor Jahren ins Exil gegangen, und in ganz England wurden Straßen, Plätze und Gebäude im Sinne der neuen Einigkeit umbenannt.
Der Journalist Horatio Lestoq schreibt gerade an einem Artikel zum Jubiläum, als er von Admiral Michael Ratcliffe kontaktiert und um ein Treffen gebeten wird. Als Horatio bei Ratcliffe eintrifft, ist dieser jedoch tot. Ermordet.
Die Polizei hält Horatio für den Mörder, muss ihn aber zunächst wieder freilassen. Und dann beginnt eine wilde Verschwörungsgeschichte, die nichts auslässt: Doppelagenten, familiäre Verstrickungen, politischen Mord - und nichts ist so, wie es zu sein scheint.
Darin liegt auch das Manko der Geschichte, sie ist schlichtweg verwirrend und undurchsichtig.
Der Thriller an sich ist also nicht berauschend. Klasse dagegen fand ich dieses erschreckende Porträt einer Gesellschaft, in der politische Korrektheit bis zum Exzess betrieben wird, alles überwacht werden kann und eine Rückkehr zu den alten Werten bei Strafe verboten ist.
Der Journalist Horatio Lestoq schreibt gerade an einem Artikel zum Jubiläum, als er von Admiral Michael Ratcliffe kontaktiert und um ein Treffen gebeten wird. Als Horatio bei Ratcliffe eintrifft, ist dieser jedoch tot. Ermordet.
Die Polizei hält Horatio für den Mörder, muss ihn aber zunächst wieder freilassen. Und dann beginnt eine wilde Verschwörungsgeschichte, die nichts auslässt: Doppelagenten, familiäre Verstrickungen, politischen Mord - und nichts ist so, wie es zu sein scheint.
Darin liegt auch das Manko der Geschichte, sie ist schlichtweg verwirrend und undurchsichtig.
Der Thriller an sich ist also nicht berauschend. Klasse dagegen fand ich dieses erschreckende Porträt einer Gesellschaft, in der politische Korrektheit bis zum Exzess betrieben wird, alles überwacht werden kann und eine Rückkehr zu den alten Werten bei Strafe verboten ist.
November 3, 2012
The late Hugo Young mentioned this book in his pro EU book "This Blessed Plot". Mr Young was scathing about it! It dared to see a future Britain (AD2045) whose membership of the new USE (United States of Europe) had not turned out well. There were seven million unemployed and frequent nationalist riots as well a regime under which the absurdities of Political Correctnes had invaded every corner of every person's life.
Waterloo Station is now Maastricht Station, Trafalgar Square is Delors Square, Parliament Square is now Commission Square etc, etc.
The unlikely hero, a journalist working for "The Times", discovers that the referendum, thirty years prior to the date of the book's events and endorsing the surrender of national independence, had been rigged. Can our hero bring this to the public's attention or will he be out-taken first? Read and find out.
With any book about the medium term future,actual events render the book out of date very quickly. The Aachem Memorandum was written before the death of Princess Diana, who is referred to as living, at the age of 82, with her multi-millionaire husband in a tropical paradise; and the common currency is referred to as the ecu. Despite all this, I enjoyed this book, although I can see that it might not appeal to Europhiles and devotees of PC lunacy - of whom there are , alas, many.
Waterloo Station is now Maastricht Station, Trafalgar Square is Delors Square, Parliament Square is now Commission Square etc, etc.
The unlikely hero, a journalist working for "The Times", discovers that the referendum, thirty years prior to the date of the book's events and endorsing the surrender of national independence, had been rigged. Can our hero bring this to the public's attention or will he be out-taken first? Read and find out.
With any book about the medium term future,actual events render the book out of date very quickly. The Aachem Memorandum was written before the death of Princess Diana, who is referred to as living, at the age of 82, with her multi-millionaire husband in a tropical paradise; and the common currency is referred to as the ecu. Despite all this, I enjoyed this book, although I can see that it might not appeal to Europhiles and devotees of PC lunacy - of whom there are , alas, many.
June 11, 2015
Brilliant book about the relationship between Britain and the EU. Using a plot of a murder, the author manages to explore a fictionised future where the European Union became the United States of Europe and a big brother. A bit too nationalistic from the British perspective but a good illustration of what could happen if there are no checks and balances.
February 18, 2016
Never let a political pundit write love scenes.
The story is full of cardboard characters.
The end has too many double-agents who fling off their disguise and then fling that one off again. Confusing, contrived, and paranoid is no way to go through life.
The story is full of cardboard characters.
The end has too many double-agents who fling off their disguise and then fling that one off again. Confusing, contrived, and paranoid is no way to go through life.
May 2, 2013
Dystopic euro-scepticism but parts of it are all too frighteningly plausible.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews