Alan Rhode is a former journalist from Italy, now living in the UK. Born in Genoa, a chilled-out town on the north-west coast of Italy, Alan spent many years in the more hectic Milan before moving to London, where he wrote his first novel.Inspired by a relatively unknown historical fact – that in 1950 the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer publicly proposed the idea that France and Germany should merge into a single country – Alan wrote The Eagle and the Cockerel, a fast-paced political intrigue that brings the reader on a breathtaking journey through Paris, Berlin, Milan and the UK, culminating in an unprecedented referendum on the unification of the two countries that is hosted by a tyrannical social media platform.Witty and insightful, the book delves into the ambitions, inner conflicts and fears of its characters. With Brexit still in the media spotlight, the war in Ukraine and the growing influence of populism, The Eagle and the Cockerel has stirred the curiosity of the public and media alike, establishing Alan as an exciting new voice in political literature.Alan is currently working on his (secret) second novel.

'At once of the recent past and of the moment, Alan Rhode’s The Eagle and the Cockerel is a meaty political thriller served in a distinctively wry style. Brilliantly comic on personality politics, and sharp on big picture politics, political comms, AI, and social media, The Eagle and the Cockerel exposes the absurdities of political games and power play in all their treachery, arrogance and self-serving cronyism.'