Hurd, Douglas
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1930- ) UK Conservative politician and author, in the former capacity serving his government between 1984 and 1995 at Cabinet level. His sf novels are, perhaps understandably, Near-Future thrillers in which the UK must survive threats from within and without (see Politics). Send Him Victorious (1968) with Andrew Osmond (1938-1999) is the first of the Harvey sequence tracing the consequences of political upheaval: initially from internal threats, then in The Smile on the Face of the Tiger (1969) with Andrew Osmond when China demands Hong Kong back from her imperial masters (a plot which has, of course, become part of history), and finally, in Scotch on the Rocks (1971) with Andrew Osmond, with the coming nearly to power of a Scottish liberation movement (which continues, decades later, to seem possibly prophetic). The Shape of Ice (1998) continues to play with Near Future politics, positing a Conservative victory some time ago now. He was created a life peer in 1997. [JC]
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell
born Marlborough, Wiltshire: 8 March 1930
works
series
Harvey
- Send Him Victorious (London: Collins, 1968) with Andrew Osmond [Harvey: hb/]
- The Smile on the Face of the Tiger (London: Collins, 1969) with Andrew Osmond [Harvey: hb/]
- Scotch on the Rocks (London: Collins, 1971) with Andrew Osmond [Harvey: hb/]
individual titles
- Truth Game (London: Collins, 1972) [hb/]
- The Shape of Ice (London: Little, Brown and Company, 1998) [hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry