Adam Macqueen – författare

Stored in Whitehall's archives are everything from blood-chilling warnings of imminent nuclear attack to comical details of daily life in the corridors of power. Concerned notes from ministers on the subject of the Heir to the Throne's potential brainwashing by Welsh terrorists are shelved alongside worries about housemaids 'on the wobble' at Chequers.Detailed and surprising plans for royal funerals sit beside reports on suspected spies in the showbiz world and bawdy poetry about the monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar. And Mary Whitehouse's complaints about the sex education syllabus nestle next to thank-you notes from prisoner 13260/62, also known as Nelson Mandela.Adam Macqueen, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller Private Eye: The First 50 Years, has searched high and low to present us with some of the most unlikely revelations since the Official secrets act was inaugurated one hundred years ago. Not only about Mrs Thatcher's ironing board, but Ted Heath's car, Harold Macmillan's bedroom carpet, Imelda Marcos and her son Bong Bong's trip to Buckingham Palace and President Eisenhower's particular problem with Winston Churchill's trousers.

William Hesketh Lever - soap-boiler, social reformer, MP, tribal chieftain, multi-millionaire and Lord of the Western Isles - was one of the most extraordinary men ever to leave his mark on Britain.Beliefs far ahead of their times - the welfare state, votes for women, workers' rights - jostled in his mind with ideas that were fantastically bonkers - the world's problems could be solved by moving populations from country to country, ballroom dancing could save the soul and the only healthy way to sleep was outdoors in the wind and the rain.Adam Macqueen traces Lever's footsteps from his humble Bolton boyhood to a business empire that straddled the world, visiting the homes and model towns from the Mersey to the Congo that still bear the mark - and often the name - of William Lever.It is a hilarious and touching journey that shines a spotlight on a world and a set of beliefs long gone, and asks several vital questions: where does philanthropy stop and social engineering begin? Is it right for an employer to dictate how his workers spend their weekends and hire private detectives to make sure they are doing it properly? Are the length of a lawn and the curve of a bannister of vital importance to the great scheme of things? And why would a multi-millionaire with half a dozen homes and property on four continents chose to sleep on the roof?

The prime minister, the terror plot of the decade and an ex-rent boy who knows too much‘Accomplished and gripping’ – The Observer It’s 1984. Tommy Wildeblood, hero of Beneath the Streets, has put his days as a Piccadilly rent boy and scandal-hunting sleuth behind him, to study at the radical Polytechnic of North London.During a pitched battle against National Front infiltrators at the Poly, he meets handsome young Irishman Liam and embarks on the sort of romantic relationship he never thought he would have. But is it too good to be true? Liam’s abrupt disappearance prompts Tommy to question how much he knows about his new lover.Dusting off his old sleuthing skills, Tommy’s hunt for Liam takes him into the dark and violent netherworld of radical politics. As his search moves to an explosive climax, he finds himself in danger of carrying the can for one of the most shocking events of the decade.With the twin spectres of Aids and nuclear armageddon never far away, The Enemy Within i s a gritty thriller built around a story of love in terrifying times. It captures the unique spirit of a dark and brooding age, with a supporting cast including Derek Jarman, corrupt Trotskyist leader Gerry Healy, a young Jeremy Corbyn and even Maggie Thatcher herself.

In the age of AIDS and Section 28: a secret that could change political history It is 1987, and Tommy Wildeblood has put his days as a Piccadilly Circus rent boy long behind him. Slightly to his own surprise, he is now a rookie teacher at a South London comprehensive.But when Margaret Thatcher’s government launches a chilling attack on the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in a new law known as Section 28, Tommy can’t stay silent – especially when he realises he may have information about one of Thatcher’s key lieutenants that could change the political situation completely.Forming an uneasy alliance with a sharp-elbowed tabloid journalist, and delving deep into his past on the ‘Dilly’, he puts everything on the line – both for himself and his old friends – in a desperate bid to expose the truth.With his trademark blend of historical research and ‘what if’ fiction, Adam Macqueen captures the spirit of a frightening age in another spellbinding case that lifts the lid on the Eighties political establishment’s murkiest secrets.

'A fun history of political dishonesty' The TimesIn a history full of wit and acumen, Private Eye journalist Adam Macqueen dissects the gripping stories of the biggest political lies of the last half-century, from the cover-up of Churchill's stroke to Iraq's WMDs to Theresa May's announcement that she wouldn't be calling a snap election. Also covering a selection of Donald Trump's litany of untruths, other infamous lies from foreign shores, and lesser known British whoppers, this is the quintessential guide to dishonesty from our leaders.

'A brilliantly eclectic mix of dark, unsettling tales' Joanne Burn, author of The Bone Hunters'Guaranteed to give you goosebumps' Best Magazine'Atmospheric collection of spooky stories' Observer'A lovely present' The Spectator'Inspired by all the great ghost story writers' BBC Open Book Editor's Pick'Tis the season to be hauntingAn unexpected and unwelcome voice on the world’s first radio broadcast in 1908. A son who won’t stop messaging his family on Facebook, although he’s been dead for quite some time now. A frozen forest in a far north land where the sinister elf-kin lurk in the snow.A Scottish island where the locals make very sure their old folk don’t go hungry through the long winter.Over the past two decades Adam Macqueen has sent a Haunted Tale to his family in place of a Christmas card. A collection in the grand tradition of ghost stories – to be read by the fire in the depths of winter – it proves that terror lurks in many places, and the dead take on infinite guises . . .READER REVIEWS'Spine-chilling''Dark and twisty''Pleasing terrors indeed'‘An awesome collection … I loved how each story had its unique twist’ ‘An amazingly spooky collection … Excellent’‘What a wonderfully weird and unsettling collection of short stories this is!’‘Fabulous … I can't recommend this book enough’

Some truths should stay guarded Hobbe’s Folly is a deeply unsettling tale of ghostly estates and other dimensions by Adam Macqueen, author of Haunted Tales.1904: Naive bookseller's assistant Henry Canning arrives at Hareswood Lodge to catalogue the library of its late owner. But he's unprepared for the horrors that lurk within Matthew Hobbe's collection – and something even more terrible that still lingers in the room itself.The present day, and a young council officer is tasked with finding the story behind an unassuming brick building that is all that stands in the way of a vast new housing development. But to the concern of his colleagues, Ben finds himself growing more and more obsessed with the secret of Hobbe's Folly. Why does it have no doors or windows? Is it to keep people out? Or to keep something too awful to imagine trapped inside?In Hobbe’s Folly, Adam Macqueen channels the masters of the ghost story in two intertwined narratives that build into a horrifying whole – and will ensure you never look at the view beyond your windows in quite the same way again.

Private Eye: The 60 Yearbook is a history of the last 60 years, as seen by Britain's first, most successful and indeed only fortnightly satirical magazine.From the Beatles to Brexit, JFK to Trump, the Moon landings to the Mars landings, it tells the story of the past six decades as they were recorded in the Eye's pages. The news stories you remember - and plenty you may have forgotten - are retold in cartoons, covers and the magazine's legendary spoofs as well as extensive extracts from some of its best-loved features like Mrs Wilson's Diary, Dear Bill and The Secret Diary of John Major.It is also the story of the headlines Private Eye made itself, from the earliest stirrings of investigative journalism exposing the Poulson Scandal and Ronan Point, through major miscarriages of justice like the Stephen Lawrence case and the Lockerbie cover-up and national scandals that have cost the country billions in dodgy PFI contracts, government cock-ups and secret sweetheart tax deals. Inside are the stories that led to the fall of two cabinet ministers, countless corrupt business figures and even the official in charge of making sure everyone else in Whitehall's behaviour was above board.It includes writing by such satirical giants as Peter Cook, Richard Ingrams, Craig Brown, Auberon Waugh and Ian Hislop, and pictures by some of the world's best cartoonists including Michael Heath, Gerald Scarfe, Nick Newman, Willie Rushton, Robert Thompson and Ken Pyne.

When Jeremy Thorpe hired thugs to kill his ex-lover, they botched it. What if they had succeeded?‘As boldly conceived as it is vividly realised, Beneath the Streets is a delight’ – John PrestonLONGLISTED: Polari Prize It is February 1976, and the naked corpse of a young rent boy is fished out of a pond on Hampstead Heath. Since the police don’t seem to care, twenty-year-old Tommy Wildeblood – himself a former ‘Dilly boy’ prostitute – finds himself investigating.Dodging murderous Soho hoodlums and the agents of a more sinister power, Tommy uncovers another, even more shocking crime: the senior politician Jeremy Thorpe has ordered the murder of his former male lover. The trail of guilt seems to lead higher still, and a ruthless Establishment will stop at nothing to cover its tracks.In a gripping thriller whose cast of real-life characters includes Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his adviser Lady Falkender, Adam Macqueen plays ‘what if’ with Seventies political history – with a sting in the tail that reminds us that the truth can be just as chilling as fiction.