Diverge and Conquer (Look to the West Book 1)

by Tom Anderson

  Some still passionately denounce him as a genocidal dictator, a 'prototype Hitler' who introduced military rule to the British Isles, banned Christmas and dancing, and ruled through fear and the ruthless application of force. Others argue that he was a liberator, a noble foe of tyranny and oppression, and the originator of the British tradition for tolerance.

  The one thing that can be agreed on is that it is difficult to imagine what might have happened, good or ill, had a certain obscure Cambridgeshire Member of Parliament had not been present to influence the direction of Britain at one of the most tumultuous periods of the nation’s history.

  An English Civil War without Cromwell. Let's speculate.

  Available now.

  The Unreformed Kingdom Tom Anderson

  It’s the twenty-first century! Thanks to the inevitable tide of historical progress, we live in a liberal and democratic society! Except… that anonymous tide was made of real people making the decision to work to change things. What if, starting with the Great Reform Act of 1832, they had decided otherwise?

  The Unreformed Kingdom explores a very different, yet oddly familiar, Britain of a 2015 in which you can download an app to watch public executions, many MPs still represent rotten boroughs, and your religion determines your right to vote. Along the way, we meet some surprising figures from our own world, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, the dangerously modernising Leader of the Tory Opposition, the intellectual patrician American Ambassador George W. Bush, and Jeremiah Clarkson, the controversial Mayor of Doncaster. Will the attitudes of the past rule over this land forever, or is there hope for the cause of liberty from a very unexpected source?

  This edition includes a new appendix describing the historical background to the setting and the events leading up to the world of 2015.

  Available now.

  La Isla Blanca Jack Tindale

  The Spanish Armada is today regarded with faint embarrassment. In Spain, it is often limited to a little more than a footnote about a somewhat foolhardy endeavour, whilst in Britain, it’s defeat has gone from being a sign of divine salvation to a serious threat saved my a combination of luck and weather. Had it been successful, there is little doubt that it would have posed a genuine threat to Elizabeth I – with the ill-prepared English army having little chance of success against a vast Spanish force from the south and the prospect of a Catholic uprising in the North. The Armada’s success may well have nipped England’s fledgling superpower status in the bud.

  But what if things fell somewhere in between?

  In La Isla Blanca, Jack Tindale considers the cultural, economic and political consequences of a foreign occupation of the Isle of Wight and the effects of a humbled England and a strengthened Spain.

  Any similarities to Gibraltar are, of course, entirely coincidental.

  Available now.

  Bombard the Headquarters! Steven Digena

  In 1971, strange things were afoot at the centre of the People’s Republic of China. With the Cultural Revolution still under way and Mao Zedong at the height of his power, China and the world were shocked to find late in the year that assassination and coup had been in the air, and had subsequently come crashing down in eastern Mongolia. Lin Biao, Marshall of the People’s Liberation Army, and Mao’s constitutionally designated successor was dead in a plane crash, having failed to launch a military coup against the regime he had so long served. The seizure of power, known as Project 571 ended in disaster for its plotters, and anyone who could be accused of having been involved.

  But what if their effort to bomb the Chairman’s train had succeeded?

  In Bombard the Headquarters! Steven Digena explores the possibilities of what could have happened, had ‘The Great Helmsman’ been assassinated in the fall of that year. What follows is clash of his lieutenants and plotters as military and political factions challenge each other for power, leadership and their own survival.

  Available now.

  Festung Europa: The Anglo-American Nazi War Jon Kacer

  The fall of Stalingrad in 1942 leads to Stalin purging his brightest officers. With the Red Army in disarray at the exact moment that the front collapses, Hitler is able to press the advantage and utterly defeat the Soviet Union. No longer facing any threats to the East, the Third Reich concentrates on reorganising Europe and building ‘Festung Europa’ – Fortress Europe.

  An uneasy and informal truce breaks out in the West, as Britain and America consider their options. Eventually, in 1954, matters come to a head and the ‘warm war’ turns hot. But the road to a liberated Europe will be paved with blood, sweat, tears and nuclear weapons.

  An exploration of the insane cost that Europe would pay under Nazism, and the astronomical price of its removal, Festung Europa is an unmissable war epic from one of alternate history’s most respected writers.

  Available now.

  Union, Travail, Justice Jonathan Edelstein

  In 1958, Gabon chooses union with France over independence. In 2015, with the powerful Alain-Bernard Bongo on trial in Paris, two murders in the oil fields reverberate from the Libreville underworld to the heights of French corporate towers, and threaten to unravel a web of corruption that joins politicians, oil companies and organized crime. Can a foreign journalist find the secret that Elf Aquitaine wants to keep buried, and will it shake Gabon’s politics as they haven’t been shaken in sixty years?

  Part alternate history, part conspiracy thriller, Jonathan Edelstein's tale of a different post-colonial history for Gabon will grip readers with its twists and turns, all the while raising questions about our own present.

  Available now.

  The World of Fight and Be Right Ed Thomas

  In Fight and Be Right, Ed Thomas charted the alternative political career of Lord Randolph Churchill. But what about the strange world that resulted from his dramatic entry and departure from the political stage?

  From the ruined streets and totalitarian oppression of Syndicalist London to the Russian 'Robots', and from the Jewish homeland in Australia to Longwood, Florida, home of the American motion picture industry, "The World of Fight and Be Right" explores a completely different, yet strangely familiar, 20th century.

  Available now.

  10 Leaders Britain Never Had edited by Tom Black

  ‘Great man’ history is flawed. But it can be fun.

  A group of alternate history authors try their hand at imagining different figures at the top of the British establishment. Be they Prime Ministers or something less conventional, the men and women in these pages inhabit very different worlds to that in which we live.

  Could Britain have had a female PM much earlier in its history? Who might emerge to lead Britain from the ashes of a fascist dictatorship? If Militant had taken over the Labour Party, who might be in Downing Street today?

  Sea Lion Press favourites including Jack Tindale and Ed Thomas are joined by newcomers in this volume of vignettes edited by Tom Black.

  Available now.

  Decisive Darkness: Part One - Majestic Paul Hynes

  In August 1945, Japan was hit with two nuclear weapons. This, along with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, caused the government to surrender.

  What if it had not?

  Paul Hynes imagines a world in which a fanatical junta takes over Japan and pledges a fight to the bitter end. Using real-world plans relating to the invasion of the Home Islands, along with an extensive knowledge of American, British, Soviet and Japanese attitudes and capabilities at the time, Hynes crafts a story of harrowing losses, desperate measures, and unspeakable horror for the civilian population.

  Available now.

  Decisive Darkness: Part One - Majestic Paul Hynes

  In August 1945, Japan was hit with two nuclear weapons. This, along with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, caused the government to surrender.

  What if it had not?

  Paul Hynes imagines a world in which a fanatical junta takes over Japan and pledges a fight to the bitter end. Using real-world pl
ans relating to the invasion of the Home Islands, along with an extensive knowledge of American, British, Soviet and Japanese attitudes and capabilities at the time, Hynes crafts a story of harrowing losses, desperate measures, and unspeakable horror for the civilian population.

  Available now.

  The Fiery Crucible Ed Thomas

  In "The Bloody Man", Ed Thomas explored what might have happened had a young Oliver Cromwell emigrated to the New World before he had a chance to make a mark in England. Now, the trilogy continues...

  It is 1647, and England is slipping back into Civil War. The King has escaped; London is burning; mad Prophets roam the streets and the Army has mutinied. There are many Bloody Men abroad. As the world's history increasingly diverges from our own and the British Revolution gathers pace, Oliver Cromwell consolidates his own power in New England, and casts his eyes over a new prize...

  Available now.

  President Ashdown Is Retiring Tom Black and Jack Tindale

  “Welcome to the BBC's coverage of the 2015 UK Presidential Election...”

  In President Ashdown Is Retiring, the authors of Shuffling the Deck team up once again to explore the aftermath of a thoroughly modern and fundamentally Blairite republican revolution.

  Now, join David Dimbleby and many familiar faces on Election Night 2015, including Business Secretary Peter Mandelson MP, Green Party Lord Senator Robert Llewellyn, a blonde-haired eccentric Mayor of London, backbench troublemaker Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Alan Partridge, and a great many more. Told (almost) in real time, our increasingly tired journalists and their guests reveal more and more about the world in which they find themselves. It's an election night quite unlike any other, and a must-read for any political geeks who stay up late whenever there's an election on.

  Available now.

  With Iron And Fire David Wostyn

  The year is 1912, and the history of China takes a different turn.

  The president of the newly-founded Republic of China dies suddenly, before the fledgling regime has had time to take root. As a compromise between the militarist and republican factions, a former reformist leader is chosen to replace him. But he has his own agenda…

  What if the Republic of China had died in infancy? With Iron and Fire is the tale of a China that might have been—one in which a new imperial dynasty takes over after a short interregnum, and the descent into warlordism and civil war that wracked the country for decades in history as we know it is pre-empted.

  A stable government allows China to become a regional power once again. When the Russian revolution comes, it joins the foreign intervention on the side of the Whites—and once the dust has settled, finds itself with a client state in Eastern Siberia. But China’s very resurgence puts it on a collision course with another rising Asian power: the Empire of Japan. Their rivalry is bound to engulf Asia in flames.

  Available now.

  The Blue Lotus (a 'Fight And Be Right' story) Ed Thomas

  In Fight and Be Right and The World of Fight and Be Right, Ed Thomas explored the strange parallel history that resulted from the unlikely political success of Winston Churchill's father. There are many stories to be told in this world. This is one of them.

  It's 1934, and as war rages across the globe the city of Shanghai preserves an uneasy neutrality between the rival alliances- until a young journalist is brutally murdered. Can the killer be brought to justice, or is the truth about his death too dangerous to be exposed?

  Available now.

  The Loud Blast That Tears The Skies Chris Nash

  1908. The United Kingdom stands upon the cusp of a tumultuous century; a century of far-reaching political, social, and economic change. That change will accelerate rapidly within a few short years, as Liberals found the welfare state and reform the British constitution, and as a Sarajevo gunman plunges the world into total war.

  But what if the meteor that harmlessly crashed into remote Siberian forest in the summer of 1908, had instead brought death and destruction to Edwardian London? What if the British Empire, at the height of her confidence and hubris, lost both her capital and her government? What kind of world would have emerged?

  In The Loud Blast That Tears The Skies, Chris Nash explores a world where First World War generals rebuilt a shattered Britain, where blood is shed not in the fields of Flanders, but in the streets of London and Glasgow. A world where German engineering put a man on the Moon, and threatens mankind with annihilation. A world where British diaspora preach libertarianism from the American west, and where old Russian revolutionaries are fêted in exile. Told from the perspective of a British political history, it is the tale of a world whose leaders are very different from those we knew - but yet who are sometimes strangely familiar.

  Available now.

  The Yorkshire Assembly Jack Tindale

  England remains one of the most centralised countries in the developed world - but does it have to be?

  In 2004, Tony Blair's government held an abortive referendum on establishing an elected Assembly in the North East of the country, which voters rejected by an overwhelming margin. Of the reasons given for the failure, chief amongst them was the failure of the pro-Assembly campaign to give a coherent message regarding devolved powers, as well as lacklustre leadership from the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

  So, what if the government had looked a bit further south? From the Penistone Show to the corridors of power in Bradford Odeon, The Yorkshire Assembly shows a number of scenes from a patchwork United Kingdom.

  Available now.

  Walking Back To Happiness Liam Baker

  Harold Wilson was launched into the spotlight as the darling of Labour’s modern left in the leadership election of 1960, challenging Gaitskell and making himself the de facto leader of the Labour Left. His was the promise of a modernising party, committed to shaping Britain into a progressive and technocratic nation, and this promise would be put to the test when he became Prime Minister in 1964. Sadly, it was a test he did not pass and the failures of his government set Britain upon a path of industrial stagnation, social democratic malaise, and the ultimate dominance of the right in British politics.

  But, what if Wilson never entered the 1960 leadership contest? What if the original candidate of the left in 1960 took Wilson’s place in British history? In Walking Back To Happiness, Liam Baker imagines a Britain without the false promises of Harold Wilson and the stagnation of Labour’s technocracy. Instead, Wilson is replaced by someone far more radical in his politics and far more telegenic as a personality. In this timeline, the received wisdom of British politics – where radical means unelectable and democratic socialism is doomed to fail – is turned on its head as the Labour Left becomes the party establishment and Britain’s small-c conservatism is shaken by continuous social upheaval.

  Available now.

  The Plague Policeman Tony Jones

  Versailles, 2002. The capital of the French Empire, the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. A mysterious man found murdered in an alley close to the Palace of Versailles, the very heart of Empire, throws doubt on its security and, before long, on the very future of humanity as a species.

  Njabulo ('Jab') de Voggeveen. Doctor of medicine. Hunter of diseases. Expatriate Zulu. Slightly out of his depth, but nonetheless drafted in by the French government to find the origin of the mystery man and stop those responsible for him from creating more.

  Jab must search from the seedy underbelly of Paris, across the climate change-altered landscape of an Earth very different from our own, to the glittering palaces of the great and powerful of the French Empire. On the way he must overcome danger, death and corruption at all levels to fulfil his mission. It will not be easy, but it will be interesting!

  Available now.

  Making Murder Sound Respectable Bob Mumby

  “Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” – George Orwell

&
nbsp; The Fascist and Communist dictatorships left a bloody stain on the 20th Century, leaving tens of millions dead in their wake and a bitter taste in the mouth for hundreds of millions more when they encounter those ideologies. But what if they had never got the opportunity to do that damage?

  A world where the Russian Revolution didn’t produce a Communist superpower, and Hitler never found success at the ballot box. A world where the political fears and tensions of the 1930s continued, unmolested by the pressures of total global war.

  In Making Murder Sound Respectable, Bob Mumby explores this world through a very different British election night, from the perspective of a group of students watching the results on television. While they worry about what kind of curry they want, events unfold in the background that reveal a glimpse of a radically different world. Communist and Fascist thugs clash in the streets, and foreign commentators pontificate on whether the Union Party has strayed too far from Oswald Mosley’s principles, while far from Britain’s shores the forces which have been contained for a century may yet be unleashed.

  Available now.

  The End, And Afterwards Andy Cooke

  It took three things to bring about the End of the World:

  - A space drive that was to open the stars to humanity.

  - Exiled Warlords willing to blackmail the world to restore their tyranny.

  - Their intended victims, desperate to avoid them.

  But even though the Earth might be doomed, Hope could still survive..

  Pip Allen was desperate to go to the stars after he graduated.

  Charlie Jennings was seeking a new life and meaning.

  Joe Mbutu was striving to protect his people from the callous Warlords.

  Corbin Anders was trying to prevent what he saw as an abomination.

  The Endeavour would tie their stories together at the End of the World... and afterwards.

  Sea Lion Press' first 'future history' brings the vivid and frightening world of acclaimed author Andy Cooke (The Fifth Lectern) to life.

  Available now.

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