Daphne Du Maurier's RULE BRITANNIA

[uk 75]

Listening to "The Birds" on Radio 4 last week reminded me of a paperback novel
I bought in the 70s by Daphne Du Maurier about a US warship landing in Cornwall
during a "near future" in which Britain had left the European Community as it then was
and was forced into a Union with the US. I recall the novel as being somewhat tongue
in cheek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_Britannia_(novel)

I attach the artwork from the book which prompted my interest at the time.

The book was one of the first alternate histories I read, along with PAVANE by Keith Roberts,
and I have been hooked ever since

 

[uk 75]

Sorry. I should have put this in Alternate History.
Not with it this morning

 

[MaxLegroom]

I should consider reading this. I'd read one of Daphne Du Maurier's other novels, called The Scapegoat. It started with an Englishman seeing himself walking down the street. By the time it was over, he'd fixed the major problems of his doppelganger's life, like the mother on morphine, and the ailing family business.

My taste for alternative history has mainly been limited to a book I bought in the '90s called Alternative Presidents. On the cover was part of the American flag, in its complimentary colors, and an image of Thomas Dewey at a podium holding up a newspaper. No bonus points for guessing what the headline was. It had some hilarious stories, one being where Ben Franklin was the first President, and one where we elected Dukakis, only to find he was an alien monster. The best one, for me, was Dispatches From The Revolution, by Pat Cadigan. This was a story that had LBJ running and winning in 1968, and where things went from there...