Rytuose tebesitęsia ilgas Vokietijos karas su Rusija, o britai atsiduria tamsioje autoritarinėje valdžioje: spauda, radijas ir televizija kontroliuojami, gatvėse patruliuoja smurtaujanti pagalbinė policija, o Britanijos žydai susiduria su vis didesniais suvaržymais. We are, of course, in past futures, a foreign country which did things differently; we are in the country of C. Famous for his Shardlake Tudor series, here Sansom brings us to 1952 in an alternate, authoritarian Britain which made peace with Hitler in 1940. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever. Indeed the best bit of the book is the 10 page or so explanation at the end, which contains everything of value in the 500 pages of the novel.

In a fit of camaraderie, Frank reveals the secret to David who is trying to get Frank off to America with the help of other resistance workers. He is aided by, of all organisations, the Fire Brigade, an organisation with impeccable left-wing credentials, which rides to the rescue through the fog! In the universe of this novel, we made peace with Germany in 1940 and the Facist regime has been our ally for the past 15 years or so.The medium of fiction also allows him to get in some rather unfair digs at various historical characters (Lloyd George, Enoch Powell, Lord Beaverbrook, certain Labour leaders etc) based purely on his imagined history of how they would have supported a quasi-Nazi regime. Both the SS and the resistance realise that he holds the secret to the new weapons that America is developing, and both go to see him and visit his flat. Germany is still fighting a bitter, savage war against Russia, the British press, radio and television are filled with propaganda and British Jews face ever greater constraints. Enoch Powell is Secretary of State for India, where Britain is still fighting a rearguard action to retain the Jewel in the tawdry Crown.

The point of divergence from actual history is that Lord Halifax, rather than Winston Churchill, succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in May 1940. Part adventure, part espionage, all encompassed by terrific atmosphere and a well-argued "it might have been". After citing numerous historical works as references, Sansom pays enthusiastic homage to one novel: Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992), a book I have not yet read.

Like ‘Fatherland,’ ‘SS-GB, ‘ Man in the High Castle,’ and many other books we are set in an alternate reality. There is a young Queen on the throne, Rememberance Day is still celebrated at the Cenotaph, and Richard Dimbleby still reads the BBC News.