Henry Porter

Reviews

“The Bell Ringers is a wonderful novel. I read it addictively and was sorry the minute it was over. It’s way too good to be called a thriller.” —Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winner

“I can think of few writers better qualified for the contemporary thriller than Henry Porter. He’s never been afraid to take a stand — he has a journalist’s natural nosiness and disdain for politicians, wedded to the narrative gifts of a fine storyteller. The Bell Ringers is a novel with a purpose from a man born to make mischief. Hell, I wish I’d written it.” —John Lawton

“This is a rare book: a real page-turner with a profoundly important message. If you care about freedom, you must read it.” —John Humphrys

Patrick Anderson reviews 'The Bell Ringers' by Henry Porter

February 1, 2010, By Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

English journalist Henry Porter's "The Bell Ringers" (published in England last year as "The Dying Light") is one of many novels that have attempted to update "Nineteen Eighty-Four" -- and one of the more impressive... This is a sophisticated, engrossing and important political thriller.

'The Bell Ringers' by Henry Porter

February 21, 2010, By Alan Cheuse, The Dallas Morning News

Every step you take / I'll be watching you ... The refrain from the stalker's love song, "Every Breath You Take," by the Police, might serve as the epigram for this gripping new British thriller.

Watching over us

December 6 2009, By Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen

The Dying Light is a well-crafted page-turner and while Porter has built his story on the standard good-against-evil foundation, his central theme is chilling: Given the right political atmosphere and the appropriate set of power-hungry, unethical politicians, nothing in his story is outside the boundaries of current law... A great read with a sobering message about how fear erodes our fundamental values and makes us vulnerable to tyranny. It's enough to make you think.

The Dying Light by Henry Porter

11 October 2009, Michael Mansfield, The Observer

For the past two decades, Observer journalist Henry Porter has been a tireless watchdog snapping at the heels of successive home secretaries who have relentlessly dismantled the hallowed structure of civic freedoms. The government's strategy has been to implement incremental and surreptitious incursions in the hope that no one will notice. Rarely are the separate legislative dots joined up to reveal the full picture of oppression.

A very British thriller: Freedom song

August 6th 2009, The Economist

Mr Porter has an ear for the politician’s forked tongue and the language of obfuscation ... For those who like political thrillers, this is one of the season’s best: scary, informative and, alas, eminently believable.

The Dying Light by Henry Porter

26 August 2009, Jeremy Jehu, The Telegraph

Porter rails against that very British apathy which has already allowed the state to pass all the legislation necessary to turn his dystopian nightmare into reality – the same apathy, ironically, which makes such nakedly polemical British novels so rare, and welcome.

The Dying Light by Henry Porter

9th September 2009, Andrew Taylor, The Spectator

Porter has all the talents of a good thriller writer, particularly strong, crisp characterisation and the ability seamlessly to blend action and expertise. What really stands out in this novel, though, is the grimly plausible glimpse he gives us of a future that is already creeping up on us: a United Kingdom where elements of government and corporate interests are combining to monitor and ultimately control the lives of the country’s citizens.

A thriller that takes liberties

August 5 2009, Robert Murphy, Metro

Henry Porter's latest conspiracy thriller is neatly designed, elegantly written and, politically, a little subversive ... It emerges in the course of this novel that it is set in a near-future where all the security proposals of our times have become law. The result is a more sinister version of the film Enemy Of The State, with an emphasis less on hidden technology than on how the police and MI5 would legally be entitled to act against any ordinary citizen. None of this, however, is allowed to weigh down the book's virtues as a thriller, and its numerous plot twists and tantalisingly delayed explanations unfold with seductive energy.

The Dying Light

August 20 2009, Nadine Dorries MP

All the way through one does think 'yes, but that could never happen in England': but of course, it could ... The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 enables the Prime Minister, a Minister or the government Chief Whip to dismantle democracy and the rule of law overnight. This law was passed the year before I became an MP and I was unfamiliar with the extent to which the law entirely removes an individual’s right to freedom, and I doubt any man or woman on the street has a clue ... it’s a great book - a work of fiction which, in the absence of a media willing to inform the facts, should be read by everyone, not just politicians.

Someone’s Watching

August 6 2009, Cullen Murphy, Vanity Fair

Porter has battled for years against the insidious creep of government snooping. If you worry about too large a dollop of didacticism, fear not: The Dying Light is a thriller, and Porter is a stylist who enjoys a bit of theatrical flourish. (Why merely exit a room when you can leave “with an opaque Mandarin nod”?) You’ll find yourself imagining the movie it would make—North by Northwest meets House of Cards. Still, the message is clear, and persuasive. Porter claims that the novel is set in the near future. Don’t be fooled.

The Dying Light, By Henry Porter

21 August 2009, Andrew Williams, The Independent

"Governments these days – they are run either by gangsters or spooks," the Prime Minister's spokesman laments in The Dying Light. "Merrie old England" only five years hence: a country sliding inexorably towards "a shitty little dictatorship". Henry Porter's future Britain is a place where a "corrupt cabal" about the PM is capable of exploiting the insouciance of press and public to engineer nothing short of a police state. Impossible? Not if you accept that the necessary laws to "dismantle democracy and the rule of law overnight" exist on the statute book.

The Dying Light by Henry Porter

August 2009, Sue Magee, The Bookbag

Henry Porter has delivered another tense political thriller. There were times when I was torn between wanting to rush forward and find out what was going to happen and having to put the book down so that I could breathe out. The pace never lets up for a minute and the plot is right on the further edge of what you might believe, but scarily, worryingly possible... If you're looking for a holiday read which will leave you gasping for breath then this one would take some beating and I really want to thank the publishers for my review copy.

In Henry Porter's exciting, timely and frightening story, a single brave, prescient individual eventually outwits megalomaniac officialdom. This book is primarily a can't-put-it-down, rattling good yarn but it's also a deadly serious and truly awful warning'

Jessica Mann, LITERARY REVIEW

In the last ten years Londoners have become perhaps the most closely watched people in the free world. In his entertaining thriller "The Dying Light" Henry Porter, a fierce opponent of the surveillance society, imagines what Britain might be like in the not-too-distant future if this trend continues. He warns that we should keep a very careful eye on those who are keeping an eye on us.

John Humphrys

I can think of few writers better qualified for the contemporary thriller than Henry Porter. He’s never been afraid to take a stand—he has a journalist’s natural nosiness and disdain for politicians, wedded to the narrative gifts of a fine storyteller. The Bell Ringers is a novel with a purpose from a man born to make mischief. Hell, I wish I’d written it.

John Lawton

'Major new thriller by the campaigning British journalist about today's Britain as a police state. Porter is adept at spinning a credible yarn and the book could well prove highly controversial'

THE BOOKSELLER

'A daring, stylish and tensely paced thriller that brilliantly imagines the consequences for Joe Public should some of the government's suggested security proposals become law'

METRO

'He is widely recognised now as a real master of the literary espionage thriller, a true sucessor to le Carre'

PRESS GAZETTE

'You'll love this brilliantly tense novel' - Five Stars

HEAT

THE DYING LIGHT by Henry Porter
Orion Books ISBN: 0752874845 | Read more | Buy from Amazon