Duke, Madelaine
Entry updated 26 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Ukrainian-born physician and author Elizabeth Magda MacFarlane (1919-1996), in UK from 1939 or earlier; active under her main pseudonym plus at least two others in a variety of genres including sf novels (which she describes as "cartoons"). Claret, Sandwiches and Sin: A Cartoon (1964 as by Maxim Donne; 1966 as by Duke) depicts a world insecurely amalgamated, after a World War Three that has, in fact, spared the two Cold War superpowers, who join together to oppose the Mutant-infested rest of the world; the Satire becomes hyperbolic. Any politician who risks war is eliminated by an underground organization. The protagonist of the sequel, This Business of Bomfog: A Cartoon (1967), is, Recursively, "Maxim Donne" – author of Claret, Sandwiches and Sin, a successful novel that has inspired the assassination of a number of world leaders. In 1989, Bomfog (Brotherhood-of-Man-Fatherhood-of-God), the organization responsible, now runs the UK in a fashion Duke depicts in somewhat hectic language as Dystopian. Flashpoint (1982) features a scientist who plans to use a new nuclear power system to enforce global sanity. [JC]
Elizabeth Magda MacFarlane
born Ukraine: 1919
died 1996
works (selected)
series
Bomfog
- Claret, Sandwiches and Sin: A Cartoon (London: Heinemann, 1964) as by Maxim Donne [Bomfog: hb/]
- Claret, Sandwiches and Sin: A Cartoon (London: Four Square, 1966) [reissue of above title under author's own name: Bomfog: pb/Hamilton Marshall]
- This Business of Bomfog: A Cartoon (London: Heinemann, 1967) [Bomfog: hb/Ronald Searle]
individual titles
- Flashpoint (London: Michael Joseph, 1982) [hb/]
links
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