My latest novel has received its first review on Amazon, which is gratifying since there is always a worry in the first weeks following publication of any book, that absolutely no one is going to have the time to read it, let alone review it. It is even more gratifying when the review demonstrates that the reader has also given some thought to what they have read.
‘On the Backs of Others’ charts the collision between two worlds, as an old one founded on deference and duty is swept aside by a world dominated by internet influencers and global capitalism. Insightful, thoughtful and at times shocking.
I was intrigued by the use of the word “collision”. I had seen it more as the replacement of one elite, created in an age of colonialism and aristocracy, by another, founded on capital newly accrued through trading, property development and the dissemination of information and entertainment. Where once family fortunes were built on the ruthless plundering of other nations, using slavery and military force, now the construction of great palaces is more likely to be funded by less violent but more insidious industries, such as technology and money lending, (otherwise known as financial services). The servant class that laboured in the stately homes of England might have been set free from their servitude with living wages, but they soon had those wages wheedled off them once more, in return for the material goods, bread and circuses, that the new elite persuaded them they needed.
The “alpha class”, I would contend, will always exploit and abuse the gentler, quieter masses.
What I imagine this reviewer found shocking in this allegory of modern capitalism, is the brutal reality of life, lust, abuse and death, which is revealed in the private lives being lived in secret behind the façade of the idyllic English village, once the new brooms arrive to sweep it clean. The elite will always take what they want from the world and from those of us who do not have the power to resist them, regardless of how much harm they do to others in the process.
