Lou Gilmond: On researching for PALISADE

 It started with an honourable member: Harry Colbey, although he wasn’t always called that. The member of parliament for Gloucester East had several names before that one stuck, and even then, I had to rob from the grave.

That’s the problem with research. It throws up complications. Neither the man nor the parliamentary constituency exist, but I write political thrillers set in Westminster and like to make sure there are no unfortunate coincidences. No accidental similarities of name that might set tongues wagging and confuse fiction with fact. Particularly since corruption and the choice between right and wrong are major themes of my Kanha and Colbey series of political thrillers.

As I was writing Dirty Geese, the first in the series, I was at the same time digging into MPs connected to scandal. Firstly, to ping out ideas for plot twists for that book and Palisade, the next in the series. But also, to be sure I didn’t use names for my two MP protagonists that were similar to those of anyone who really existed, particularly if linked to disgraceful goings-on or – as it tends to be called when connected to our politicians – sleaze.

Before I turned to writing, I worked for many years in regulatory affairs, which often involved lobbying MPs, ministers, and civil servants. During that time, I visited both the Houses of Parliament and the government departments of Whitehall on a regular basis, and even No 10 on occasion. It didn’t matter how many times I went, I still felt it an honour to be there; to stand, for example, in central lobby, an octagonal room at the centre of the Houses of Parliament and the beating heart of Westminster. Anyone can meet or lobby an MP in this room. It sits at a crossroads, one corridor leading off it to the Lords and another, on the other side, to the Commons. It is a place where members of both sides of the commons and members of both houses meet and mingle, and where the lobby press can interview ministers and backbenchers alike.

From my time visiting Westminster, I had a good grounding on the culture there and of the differing characters of MPs, of ministers and civil servants, but I’m one of those writers who like to be thorough when it comes to research, so I dug on in.

Affairs, theft, bribery, blackmail and sexual harassment: that was just for starters. Call girls, rent boys, aggressive pimps who call late at night, inappropriate content on computers, watching pornography at work, misrepresentation of educations and prior careers, drugs in the workplace, drugs outside of the workplace, vendettas, violence, and fraud.

It seemed that if there was a list of things that MPs shouldn’t be doing, every single item on it had been covered off in some form or other, at some time other.

It didn’t take too long to discover that the name I had chosen for one of my protagonists bore a resemblance to that of a real-life MP connected to one of the more salacious events in my research notes. I won’t say which one. Just a single letter differentiated their surnames. Annoying. The name of my male protagonist had to change. I picked another, and as my research continued, found the exact same thing happened again. Frustrating.

The name of a protagonist is an important cornerstone of any book and as I floundered about, my male protagonist was nameless while that first book, Dirty Geese was written. Then, at the last minute, when the manuscript was due in to my editor, I saw a name on a grave in a little churchyard on the south coast. ’Colbey.’ It was perfect. An honourable sounding name for an honourable MP, and as far as I knew – or to put it more accurately as far as google was aware – there had not been a British MP with that name since Thomas Colby died in 1588, and his version of the name had a different spelling. The given name of Harry came easily after that.

Harry Colbey, a truly honourable member of parliament. A rare and fine thing.

By the time I came to write Palisade, Harry Colbey felt as real as any of the MPs I met with in my time lobbying or in my subsequent research. He was an honest man, a family man, his kids grown up and just recently flown the nest. He had disappointed his wife with his choice of career, leaving his relatively well-paid position at a bank to stand for parliament.

His plan had been to serve his constituents well and represent their interests in the House of Commons to the best of his ability. He had had a brief moment of political stardom, promoted to a junior minister early on, but he wouldn’t do what they told him. He wouldn’t compromise his morals to toe the party line, so he had been kicked back to the backbenches.

There he disappeared from view, working quietly and tirelessly on behalf of his constituents, all ambition for advancement forgotten, much to his wife’s embarrassment and shame. But when Colbey uncovers a corrupt plot between senior ministers and a big tech organisation, he feels he must abandon his hopes of a quiet slide towards retirement and instead stand up and fight for what he believes in, no matter the cost.

Both Palisade, and its predecessor, Dirty Geese, are thrillers that look at corrupt links between politicians and big tech organisations, particularly those who now have advanced AI capabilities at their fingertips. They can be read standalone, or picked up in any order, as each book looks at different aspect of the same conspiracy – although chronologically, Dirty Geese comes first.

I tried hard to make sure that the politics within them is reflective of the way our parliamentary processes really work, or to be more accurate, on occasion don’t work. But both Dirty Geese and Palisade are crime thrillers at heart and they each start with a murder. They both involve jeopardy, deceit, international conspiracy, corruption and a whole catalogue of twists and turns. And they each turn on the hope that there is at least one MP out there who will do what needs to be done, who will stand up and say what needs to be said, and that is the honourable Harry Colbey.

 Palisade by Lou Gilmond (Fairlight Books) Out Now

When opposition Chief Whip Esme Kanha is handed a secret dossier containing evidence of government corruption, she suspects its original owner, a top journalist, was murdered for gathering it. Despite the danger, she feels she must investigate. Meanwhile, lowly backbencher Harry Colbey is working his own leads. A known campaigner against big tech, he is often sent data from anonymous sources and this time round he has something truly alarming. But both Colbey and Kanha must tread carefully in a world dominated by AI, where 'what can see watches, what can hear listens, and what can be followed is tracked'. As Kanha and Colbey again join forces, they are locked into a deadly race against political corruption, no matter what the cost. But when an old enemy returns, it may already be too la

Palisade by Lou Gilmond is published on 21st November and is available to buy in bookshops now.

More information about Lou Gilmond can be found on her website. You can also find her on Instagram @lougilmond