1983 and in the north west constituency of Brownedge the purge of Militant is under way.But how did James Norris ex-schoolboy county cricketer, working class Grammar school boy educated alongside a future ambassador, Tory voter and football fan get caught up in the maelstrom?Why was he blacklisted for years?Who put his windows through?Who said they’d have him knee-capped?Who threatened him with an axe?Who stripped his flat to the last dog hair?In this fascinating novel S. Kadison traces Norris’s life from poverty in the backstreets of Monkton to vilification in the national press and in doing so asks pertinent questions about the nature of democracy and the unscrupulousness of power.