Truth Game

by Douglas Hurd

Somewhere in the Indian ocean a coup d'etat threatens a country to which Britain has treaty obligations. The Foreign Secretary has been killed in an rather than remodel his government on the eve of an election the Prime Minister has promoted a senior and much respected backbencher. A rising TV commentator, feeling that he is not rising fast enough, sees, and takes, his chance. An old love affair catches alight and forgotten jealousies flare into life again. All these elements are suddenly brought together by a chance encounter into a fast-moving narrative that will keep the reader wholly absorbed yet half unaware that he is reading fiction.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Douglas Hurd, Baron (born 1930), is an English Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995.

Born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, Hurd first entered parliament in February 1974, as MP for the Mid Oxfordshire constituency. His first government post was as Minister for Europe, and he served in several cabinet posts from 1984 onwards, including Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1984-85), Home Secretary (1985-89) and Foreign Secretary (1989-95). He stood unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party leadership in 1990 and retired from frontline politics during a cabinet re-shuffle in 1995.

In 1997, Hurd entered the House of Lords. Viewed as one of the Conservative Party's senior elder statesmen, he is a patron of the Tory Reform Group, and remains an active figure in public life. Hurd is a writer of political thrillers including The Image in the Water, and a collection of short stories in Ten Minutes to Turn the Devil.