Talking about Collusion to a couple of people over the past few days. We were discussing how real life has an impact on fiction. The prologue to this novel came from an incident in Robinson’s pub in Belfast on a Sunday night. It began as described in the book, with a man in the urinals asking if I “wanted some Charlie.” Yes, he had the scar. The “I’m a boss” stuff is real, although he said to me, “You don’t think I’m a boss because I’m so young,” in a very aggressive manner. I’m quite good in these situations, so replied, “Nah, I can see you’ve got an air of authority.” I went back to my seat and a looming presence came after a few minutes. A tattooed, bodybuilding type was holding a beer. “From the boss,” he said. To be honest, I was amused. I thought it was a bit of Protestant pantomime for the tourists. Then I went back to the hotel and, after a couple of hours of research, found a Belfast Telegraph piece with the headline: “UDA drugs ring exposed - terror group's racket involved triad gang and ex-mercenary” There, in the picture of ex-mercenaries was my mate with the scar. The piece – it’s behind the paywall – describes his use of an ‘improvised flame thrower,’ his background in the British army and his involvement in Ukraine. As for the Football Lads Action Group, I’d been talking to far-right Tommy Robinson fans before the pandemic. For me, this is how fiction germinates. So much of it came from experiences – I live in a central London area that’s full of intelligence operatives and politicians. And it was during lockdowns. So I wrote a novel. Have a read