The note of uncertainty is carried through to the conclusion. There is a strong implication that the Old Guard has made its move against Mikhail Gorbachev. A coup? An assassination? The reader isn’t told the details, nor whether the attempt was successful and Gorbachev was overthrown or killed. My reticence was partly for artistic reasons: to underline the contingent nature of history; and partly on practical grounds. After all, I couldn’t say what would happen. I didn’t know. What I did suspect — rightly as it turned out — was that some sort of action in defence of the communist system was highly likely, and in this respect I found myself for the third time writing a novel with an element of prophecy because, after it was published, a coup attempt was made.
I suppose I should say something about my uncanny habit foretelling actual events in three of my early novels. I make no claim of having any powers of clairvoyance, but in these instances I think I had a shrewd understanding of how events might turn out, and by good fortune I was right.
Jim Williams
November 2014