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Everybody’s had one, haven’t they? Everyone has a story
about the boss who made life miserable at work. The manager who had a knack for
taking credit for other people’s work, who delighted in humiliating staff and
wouldn’t hesitate to throw others under the bus. Terrible bosses are more
common than we’d like to think – so it’s no surprise there are a lot of them
out there in the world of fiction.
In 29 Seconds my
protagonist Sarah Haywood finds herself up against a powerful, highly
accomplished man with a stellar reputation and the power of ‘life and death’ over the careers of
those below him. But her boss has a secret side too, a side the world doesn’t
see: that of a serial predator with a track record of sexual harassment going
back decades.
I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t worked with anyone like
Professor Alan Lovelock, but I had a lot of fictional source material to draw
on when I created him for 29 Seconds.
In no particular order, here are some of my ‘favourites’ – but which one do you
love to hate the most? Pick your poison…
1. Miranda Priestly – The
Devil Wears Prada
Scarily close to some bosses that I’ve known, which makes
it all the more unsettling to see her in action. Arrogant, demeaning and excessively
demanding, she makes requests that are almost impossible to fulfil, such as
getting a copy of the new Harry Potter book before it’s actually come out (so
her children will have something to read on the train).
2. Les Grossman – Tropic
Thunder
Compellingly awful to watch. Loves to remind his staff over
and over again that a retarded monkey could do their jobs. Abrasive, greedy,
vile – the very worst of Hollywood. Also probably the only time you’ll see Tom
Cruise in a fat suit.
3. Ebenezer Scrooge – A
Christmas Carol
The granddaddy of all terrible bosses. The world’s most
famous miser set the benchmark for others to follow: miserable, cold-hearted
and mean-spirited. As Dickens wrote, “The
cold within him froze his old features…”
4. Meredith Johnson – Disclosure
The boss in Michael Crichton’s thriller is devious,
dangerous and untrustworthy, weaving a web of lies to discredit the protagonist
and get him fired for sexual harassment. But her real motivation goes deeper…
5. Franklin Hart Jr – Nine
to Five
The archetypal sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical
bigot. Permanently on a short fuse and delights in taking advantage of his
female office staff, humiliating them whenever possible.
6. Henry F Potter – It’s
a Wonderful Life
Must surely rank as one of the greatest villains in film
history – a cold, corrupting and deeply cynical businessman, who knows the cost
of everything and the value of nothing (and was also the inspiration for the Simpsons
character Montgomery Burns).
7. Agatha Trunchbull – Matilda
The utterly terrifying head of Crunchem Hall Primary
School in Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story – partial to locking pupils in
‘the chokey’, a tiny cupboard with
broken glass sticking out of the walls. A former shot-putter in the Olympics,
she’s also prone to picking up and hurling children who break her (very strict)
rules.
29 Seconds is published by Bonnier Zaffre and is out in
paperback on March 8th
Give
me one name. One person. And I will make them disappear . . . When Sarah rescues a young girl in trouble,
she expects nothing in return. But her act of bravery puts a powerful and
dangerous man in her debt. He lives by his own brutal code, and all debts must
be repaid - in the only way he knows how.
He offers Sarah a way to solve a desperate situation with her
intolerable boss. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that will make all her problems
disappear.
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