The Allegations

Description

On the morning after he has celebrated his 60th birthday party at a celebrity-filled party, Ned Marriott is in bed with his partner, Emma, when there's a knock on the door. Detectives from the London police force's 'Operation Millpond' have come to arrest him over an allegation of sexual assault. Ned is one of the country's best-known historians - teaching at a leading university, advising governments and making top-rating TV documentaries - but this 'historic' claim from someone the cops insist on calling 'the victim' threatens him with personal and professional ruin and potential imprisonment. Professor Marriott would normally turn for support to Tom Pimm, his closest friend at the university, but Tom has just been informed that a secret investigation has raised anonymous complaints, which may end Dr Pimm's career. Swinging between fear, bewilderment and anger, Ned and Tom must try to defend themselves against the allegations, and hope that no others are made. The two men's families and friends are forced to question what they know and think. Can the complainants, detectives, HR teams, journalists and Tweeters who are driving the stories all be seeing smoke that has no fire behind it? By turns shocking and comic, reportorial and thoughtful, The Allegations startlingly and heart-breakingly captures a contemporary culture in which allegations are easily made and reputations casually destroyed. Asking readers to decide who they believe, it explores a modern nightmare that could happen, in some way, to anyone whose view of personal history may differ from someone else's.

Mark Lawson is a novelist and cultural critic. He has published four novels including Idlewild, Going Out Live and Enough Is Enough. His work as a broadcaster includes presenting Radio 4's Front Row and Foreign Bodies - A History of Crime Fiction and BBC4's Mark Lawson Talks to... He also writes for the Guardian and the New Statesman.

Brilliantly observed and extremely funny . . . Lawson's glitteringly angry and sometimes sad novel reminds us that the biggest casualty, in a victim culture, is often the complexity of the truth * Sunday Times * Meaty and painfully contemporary . . . Lawson pushes back against the tyranny of the aggrieved. * Guardian * Fiction does not get more contemporary than this . . . terrific writing and crackling lines * Daily Mail * Well written, thought-provoking . . . funny * Literary Review * For those who savour indignation (one of my favourite emotions), Mark Lawson's The Allegations is great fun, and it provides at least the illusion of an inside track on the non-fiction backstory -- Lionel Shriver * Guardian * A witty, plausible tale of witch-hunt culture and political correctness gone mad * Mail on Sunday * Lawson's skewing of media etiquette is as exact and enjoyable as one would expect . . . When serving the narrative, it is his analyses that distinguish his prose * Times * Bears comparison with Malcolm Bradbury's classic 1975 campus novel The History Man . . . It is clear from Lawson's eloquently written and extraordinarily apposite novel that if careless talk doesn't cost lives, it can certainly cost livelihoods. The Allegations is the work of a man who understands the personal damage this causes. If it's any consolation, at least his stature as a novelist has risen another notch -- Alfred Hickling * Guardian * Darkly funny and perceptive comic novel . . . a very good example of a personal disaster being channelled into something bigger . . . Reading it, I thought what a brilliant TV drama The Allegations would make * Times (T2) * A sharp and contemporary addition to Lawson's canon * Evening Standard * An engagement by the prodigiously talented Lawson with unjust allegations destroying a career - a very personal subject for him * Independent * A subtle and thoughtful novel * Herald (Scotland) * A terrifyingly well observed satire * Weekend Sport *