Good Fascists? by Jason Monaghan

So here is the challenge. Blackshirt Rebellion is set in an alternative 1937 where Britain has a fascist government led by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union. In my alt-history thriller Blackshirt Masquerade, Hugh Clifton was persuaded to infiltrate Mosley’s Blackshirts but has become trapped in his role as their leading

confidential investigation officer. Although he was recruited to fight the fascists, he must now live and work beside them. Some become his friends, and Sissy has become his lover. Almost all the characters are one flavour of fascist or another, but I have the task as a writer to make the reader care about them.

At least the reader must hope that Hugh is not seduced by the darkness and can pull some of his colleagues into the light.

Although the background is alternative history, much of the detail within the story is true to historical fact. This includes the existence of a fascist intelligence unit operating from Room Z at their national headquarters, known as Black House. When researching the series I was surprised by the large number of far-right groups that existed in Britain in the 1930s. These vied for prominence with British Union and vocally criticised it for being not extreme enough. Pro-Nazi and

extreme antisemitic and white supremacist groups were particularly critical, deploying insults such as ‘kosher fascists’. This provides fertile ground for the plot of Blackshirt Rebellion and gives Hugh and his comrades an ample number of unpleasant opponents to fight. The agents of Room Z become the good guys.

As Room Z moves against dangerous extremists the agents come up against a shadowy group within the British establishment who have been manipulating events for their own end. Hugh and Sissy are forced to go on the run to save their own lives and prevent the country from slipping into civil war.

I’ve resisted the temptation to fill the book with cliché Gestapo stereotypes, and the agents are not left unscathed by their experiences. Some wake up to the truth of dictatorship, some become determined to oppose the slide towards a Nazi state, but some are seduced by the power and fall into darkness. Weak characters find strength,

directionless ones find new purpose. Some simply react to the new reality with passive compliance, just as many Germans adapted to the Nazi regime.

Britain under fascism would quickly have become unrecognisable, and in the words of my American editor ‘scary’. With a rollercoaster resolution riffing on the country house mystery, this story rounds off the storyline developed in Blackshirt Conspiracy. Amid deaths and betrayals, the survival of Hugh, Sissy and the agents is not guaranteed. 

Blackshirt Rebellion

Published by Level Best Books
 10 September 2024
Available in paperback and eBook from Amazon and other outlets worldwide.

To read a review, click on the title.

Jason Monaghan’s life has provided plenty of inspiration for writing historical thrillers.  He trained as an archaeologist studying Roman pottery, but his career took unexpected twists, including investigating shipwrecks, a spell in offshore banking, working as an anti-money laundering specialist, and ultimately becoming a museum director. Now a full-time writer living in his native Yorkshire, he travels as often and as far as he can.friends excavating in Alderney, investigating what looks to be Britains finest small Roman fort. He lives in Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

https://monaghanfoss.com