Dangerous Games

Dangerous Games introduces Hugo Carroll and Georgie Chase, Washington’s enviably successful media couple. Hugo is America’s most influential political columnist, capable of advancing a career with one favourable paragraph or quietly burying it somewhere beneath the corrections. Georgie is the formidable editor of a leading news magazine, which means that between them they possess wealth, prestige, several desirable properties and enough influence to make elected politicians feel like temporary members of staff.

Naturally, they are assumed to have the perfect marriage. This is because they are attractive, successful and regularly photographed looking pleased to see one another, which in Washington constitutes overwhelming evidence. Behind the polished surface, however, Georgie’s career is accelerating, Hugo’s affections are becoming negotiable and their marriage is beginning to acquire the structural integrity of a government promise.

Into this slight domestic vulnerability strides Jock Liddon, a powerful Washington lobbyist who regards democracy as a promising commercial opportunity. Jock’s latest client is Star Oil, which would like access to British oilfields and sees no compelling reason why laws, governments or basic decency should interfere. Assisting him is Lisa Tabor, beautiful, ambitious and equipped with a lobbying technique that occasionally dispenses with the paperwork. Hugo looks particularly susceptible; British cabinet minister Ian Lonsdale may also prove useful; and everyone involved has something another person wants badly enough to lie about.

The resulting intrigue moves between Washington, New York and London, through glossy offices, fashionable parties, political corridors and expensive homes where the drinks are generous but the motives are carefully measured. Marriage, journalism, government and corporate money become thoroughly entangled, while adultery is treated less as a moral crisis than as an alternative route to the minister’s diary.

But these are not merely the usual harmless recreations of wealthy power brokers. Jock’s manoeuvrings lead towards Northern Ireland, and the fashionable world of influence-peddling begins to overlap with terrorism. Suddenly the games played over dinner tables and double whiskies carry consequences more serious than a damaged reputation or an awkward weekend in Georgetown. Bombs explode, loyalties collapse and several people discover that corruption is considerably more exciting when viewed from a safe distance.

Drawing on Susan Crosland’s close knowledge of journalism and political society, Dangerous Games is a sleek tale of power, sex, money and media manipulation, populated by people who publicly expose corruption while privately wondering whether it might be useful. It is political intrigue dressed for dinner: cynical, glamorous and busy demonstrating that the free press is extremely free, provided somebody wealthy is paying the expenses.

This 1991 Penguin edition is in As New condition—a remarkably fresh copy, apparently spared the wear normally produced by lobbyists, cabinet ministers and repeated confidential briefings. Ideal for readers who enjoy political blockbusters, transatlantic skulduggery and marriages in which both parties can make or break a government but have misplaced the instructions for speaking honestly to each other.

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