This author is a retired Senior Lecturer in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.
More than any other 20th century writer, George Orwell responded to a period of historical change by imagining his dystopian '1984'. What if he had been writing today, in an age of Islamist terror, fake news and post-truth politics?
It’s October 2048 and an Islamist political Party has swept to power in Britain’s general elections. Overnight the country is transformed by the introduction of the blasphemy laws. An Australian history teacher who lost his wife and daughter in a terror attack arrives in London to make contact with the leader of the Resistance. When he becomes involved with a homeless young woman, he discovers the possibility of a new life for both of them far from the dangers of the new London.