The Man with a Charmed Life

“Just who do you think writes the rules in this game? Not you. Not us. Certainly not us.”

Graham Fulbright’s latest action-packed novel is set in the pre-Gorbachev Cold War era, when the rules of the game are changing. ‘I’ve endeavoured to create flesh-and-blood protagonists for the reader to identify with rather than heroic figures cast in the mould of Jason Bourne or James Bond,’ observes Graham of his latest protagonist, Henry Wright. ‘Although the plot centres on geopolitical brinkmanship, I am more interested in personalities and how they react in certain situations. Henry is drawn into a highly-charged situation, where the dividing line between war and peace grows thinner as the story advances,’ he adds.

About the book: Two superpowers must ponder their next move over Europe’s ballistic-missile chessboard in the face of the worst threat to world peace since the Cuban missile crisis. This threat is brandished by the maverick statesman holding sway over the Elysée Palace – Henri Fouquet. France’s new Napoleon stands prepared to imperil the entire northern hemisphere with his grand designs for a new world order by changing the rules of the game to nuclear poker.

Englishman Henry Wright is unwittingly drawn into this incendiary setting after signing up with a US intelligence-gathering agency. Bewitched by Alexy Geary, the agency’s persuasive Senior Vice-President, whilst also suspicious of her motives and mistrustful of the enigmatic organisation behind her, man-in-the-middle Henry is soon entangled in a web of violence and intrigue. Alexy Geary’s challenge is to defuse the situation before the Soviet Union seizes upon French brinkmanship as a pretext for sparking off World War III – or the Pentagon unleashes its ‘Star Wars’ laser technology. With the stakes this high, all that stands in the way of mutual assured destruction is Henry Wright, an unassuming interpreter caught up in an epic predicament...

Graham Fulbright is a writer of many years’ experience. In his youth, he received a commendatory TLS write-up for his novel Contreras. Seven novels, three plays, and numerous satirical articles later, The Man With A Charmed Life is Graham’s latest novel.