The Enemy Within

It’s 1984. Tommy Wildeblood, the hero of Beneath the Streets, has put his days as a Piccadilly rent boy and scandal-hunting sleuth behind him and is studying at the radical Polytechnic of North London. But politics isn’t ready to leave him alone. With his school convulsed by the battle against National Front infiltrators and the miners’ strike splitting the country, everyone has to pick a side. Tommy knows where his sympathies lie–and not just because revolutionary summer camps and trips to the pit villages provide an ideal excuse to spend time with handsome young Irishman, Liam. But as the pair are drawn ever deeper into a web of radical politics, Tommy is forced to face up to how little he knows about his new lover–and how far he might be willing to go in the name of revolution. The Enemy Within is a gripping thriller whose cast of real-life characters include taboo-busting artist Derek Jarman, corrupt Trotskyist leader Gerry Healy, a young Jeremy Corbyn, and major figures from Margaret Thatcher’s government.

"Really well done. The detail and the authenticity is all there: London as a really scary, edgy, ugly place. The atmosphere is brilliant... As a portrait of a world I thought it was really fantastic, and I also read it with my computer by my side because I was constantly looking up the real-life figures and I was constantly shocked and amazed by how much of this is true." --David Nicholls, author, One Day on Beneath the Streets

"Ticks all the boxes for me. Gay history. Jeremy Thorpe. And a rent boy turned detective called Tommy Wildeblood. Fantastic." --Jonathan Harvey, playwright, Beautiful Thing on Beneath the Streets

"A f***ing fantastic read. A gripping what-if thriller, packed with vivid period detail and page-turning twists. To find myself actually making an appearance in the final chapter was just cream on the cake."  --Tom Robinson, musician and LGBT rights activist on Beneath the Streets

"A page-turning mystery, skilfully plotted and filled with tension, Beneath The Streets lifts the lid on 1970s subculture to spine-tingling effect." --Paul Burston, LGBT activist and author, Time Out Gay and Lesbian London

Adam Macqueen’s books include The Prime Minister’s Ironing Board and The Lies of the Land: An Honest History of Political Deceit. The King of Sunlight, his biography of the soap manufacturer William Hesketh Lever, was named by The Economist as one of its books of the year. He has contributed to Private Eye since 1997 and wrote the bestselling history of the magazine which was published for its 50th anniversary in 2011. He is also on the editorial team of Popbitch, and from 1999-2002 was deputy editor of The Big Issue. He lives on the South Coast with his husband, painter Michael Tierney.