A forgotten novel written by a British spy is attracting attention again almost four decades after it was published because its thrilling plot mirrors so closely the twists in the run-up to Donald Trump’s presidency.
The Twentieth Day of January, written by acclaimed British author Ted Allbeury and first published in 1980, tells of an incoming American president who is compromised by a sex scandal concocted by Russian spies.
Although a work of fiction, fans of the book have been astonished by the way it seems to predict the rise of Trump and the allegations made against him recently. It even includes a scene in which the head of the CIA informs Congress about what is discovered with the help of a British spy, in a situation not unlike that involving former MI6 officer Christopher Steele.
Mr Allbeury’s literary agent, Julian Friedmann, explained: “When it was written, Carter was president, Reagan was about to come in…The bare bones [of the plot] are that an aspirant politician who was nowhere near being a serious contender for the presidency somehow through the manipulation of a strike gets into a position where he becomes a possible contender and keeps being helped undoubtedly with financial support, and then becomes president. And the Russians have compromising photographs of him.”
Friedmann told the BBC that Allbeury was an intelligence officer who spent some of the war in Nazi Germany and also saw active service in Europe during the Cold War. He died in 2005 aged 88 having written more than 40 books and various radio plays, though he is in many ways regarded as an overlooked author these days.
After his death, his friend and fellow writer Len Deighton recalled: “During the Cold War, Ted was running agents across the border that divided communist East Germany from the west. His luck ran out and the Russians left him nailed to a kitchen table in a farmhouse. Practised torturers, they made sure he had a chance to survive and take the story back to his fellow agents. The war never ended for him. His children were kidnapped and he pursued them to South America. Ted never told me what happened after that. I urged Ted to write his memoirs but he could not be persuaded. He said he’d signed an official document that prevented him doing so. Well, that’s our loss, along with Ted himself: a hero, patriot, family man, friend and outstanding writer.”