Trivia / Michael Dobbs

• Disowned Adaptation: Dobbs was not happy with the TV adaptation of The Final Cut (the last part of the Urquhart trilogy), especially the fact that it began with the funeral of Margaret Thatcher, which he felt was in poor taste as she was still alive at the time (she actually died some 18 years later). He demanded that his name be removed from the credits as a result.
• Life Imitates Art: Dobbs has an uncanny ability to foreshadow Real Life events with his fiction.
  • First published in 1989, House of Cards dealt with a leadership contest that occurred after the resignation of the Prime Minister. A year later, Margaret Thatcher resigned, and one of those took place for real.
  • To Play the King was published in 1992, the year of the British Royal Family's annus horibilis. In addition to dealing with the implosion of his marriage, Prince Charles found himself subject to increasing scrutiny over his perceived attempts at meddling in political affairs.
  • Whispers of Betrayal, in which a group of disaffected but determined individuals attempts to bring a city it its knees, was published in 2000 — a year before 9/11 (and, given the novel's British context, five years before 7/7).
  • Winston's War, the first novel in the Churchill series, was published in 2002 — and in that same year, The BBC broadcast One Hundred Greatest Britons, which ended with was Winston Churchill topping the poll.
  • First Lady was published in 2006, a year which saw a particularly vicious party leadership contest (that of the Liberal Democrats) and increased questions about the funding of political parties — both of which were key plot elements in that novel.