In Times Like These - Tapa blanda

Britain has had a great fall. Its fate is in the hands of an unlikely cast of characters from past, present and future. They must try to put a Kingdom of people, now united only in name, together again. Or watch it shatter. It is their human duty. Code word: Humpty Dumpty "MAUREEN DUFFY IS A UNIQUE LITERARY TALENT. PROVOCATIVE, INFORMED, FIERCELY INTELLIGENT, HER WRITING NEVER FAILS TO INSPIRE AND ENTERTAIN." SARAH WATERS Political conspiracies are rife and Britain’s Constitution is faltering. Scottish Independence looms. It threatens to radically change the lives of Londoners Terry and Paul. Terry’s political ambitions leave her no choice but to relocate from Westminster to Scotland. But where does this leave her partner, Paul, already torn between keeping an independent voice as an artist or selling out to Russian oligarch and gallery-owner Kiril Kravic? These decisions slip farther from their control as they become victims of a series of sickening attacks rooted in tribal bigotry and intolerance. Terry and Paul must fight for their professional identities, their relationship and their lives. Other stories interlace with Terry and Paul’s struggle, including the account of a Sixth Century Irish monk, Colm Cille, on a mission after the bloody Battle of Cul Drebne to convert as many souls as were damned in combat. These intertwining plots rooted in past and present fact, form a robust examination of current social and political attitudes. Maureen Duffy meticulously carves a cautionary fable of the depressing future that could result from their continuing domination in a society held increasingly hostage by sectarian agendas. But with Duffy’s resolute imagination and fierce intellect at work, In Times Like These offers hope amidst the wreckage, staging a panoply of narratives across time and place that maintain faith in the enduring integrity of human values. In Times Like These explores ideas of nationhood, cultural heritage and political ideals to remind us sagely that the world is our country. “[MAUREEN DUFFY] IS HIGHLY PRINCIPLED AND A BATTLER FOR WHAT SHE BELIEVES IN, AND SHE PUTS HER IMAGINATION, WHICH IS WILD AND MISCHIEVOUS, TO WORK FOR HER BELIEFS." MARINA WARNER

Maureen Duffy is a notable contemporary British poet, playwright and novelist. After a tough childhood, Duffy took her degree in English from King’s College London. She turned to writing full-time as a poet and playwright after being commissioned to produce a screenplay by Granada Television. Her first novel, written at the suggestion of a publisher, THAT'S HOW IT WAS (1962), was published to great acclaim. Her first openly lesbian novel was THE MICROCOSM (1966), set in the famous lesbian Gateways club in London. Among her later novels, GOR SAGA was televised in 1988 in a three-part mini-series called FIRST BORN starring Charles Dance. She is also the author of 16 plays for stage, television and radio, the most recent being SAPPHO SINGING in 2010. To date she has published over 30 works, including five volumes of poetry. Her COLLECTED POEMS, 1949-84 appeared in 1985. Her work has often used Freudian ideas and Greek Myth as a framework. She took an active part during the debates around homosexual law reform, which culminated in the Act of 1967. in 1977 she published THE BALLAD OF THE BLASPHEMY TRIAL, a broadside against the trial of The Gay News newspaper for 'blasphemous libel.' She has also been active in a variety of groups representing the interest of writers, and is currently the President of the Authors Licensing and Copyright Society, and a Fellow and Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She is deeply interested in issues around enforcing traditional forms of intellectual property law, and is President of the British Copyright Council, and a Fellow of King's College London. She was made a D.Litt. by Loughborough University in 2011 for services to literature and equality law.