
Rule Britannia - Virago Modern Classics (Paperback)
Daphne Du Maurier (author)- In stock

A work of uncanny political prophecy, Rule Britannia, a dystopian vision of Britain turning her back on the European Economic Community, was written in 1972. Du Maurier’s final novel, it is a nightmarish vision of a conjoined Britain and America, trigger happy US marines and chaotic States of Emergency. A neglected gem ripe for rediscovery.
In this prescient novel, Daphne du Maurier explores the implications of leaving Europe for a political, economic and military alliance with the United States.
'It is rather awful, Emma thought as she walked across the fields down to the farm, how this business is leading us all into subterfuge and deception, and we can't really tell who is friend and who is enemy . . . '
Emma wakes up one morning to an apocalyptic world. The cosy existence she shares with her grandmother, a famous retired actress, has been shattered: there's no telephone, no radio - and an American warship sits in the harbour. England has withdrawn from the European Common Market and, on the brink of bankruptcy, has decided that salvation lies in a union - political, military and economic - with the United States. Theoretically it is to be an equal partnership, but it soon begins to look like a takeover bid.
As the two women piece together clues about the 'friendly' military occupation on their doorstep, family, friends and neighbours come together to resist the interlopers.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9781844080632
Number of pages: 336
Weight: 230 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 23 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Consistently entertaining.' - Sunday Times
'The spirit of Britannia embodied.' - Sunday Telegraph
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