John Creasey
The Terror: The Return of Dr. Palfrey

Great Britain and the English in particular have never truly accepted the downsizing that the end of the two world wars and colonialism inevitably and historically brought as a consequence, forcing what was once the world's greatest power to assume a hierarchically secondary role, increasingly sidelined over the years compared to the larger international powers.

This began in the immediate post-war era when the world was divided into two parts, separated by what a great British historical figure described as the 'Iron Curtain.'

Since then, the decline of Great Britain from a superpower to a simple supporting player, often alongside the United States of America, has been gradual but constant over time. This caused a certain level of frustration across all social strata of the population for various reasons and consequently led to a conservatism that has only worsened things.

This frustration is evidently still strongly felt today, explaining the United Kingdom's ambiguity in its relations with the European Union and concerning 'Brexit,' a matter yet to be fully defined in its forms and modalities.

The truth is that Great Britain is, in many respects, what we might call the world's oldest country. An old age that is somehow presented as uniqueness (in the sense of something exceptional), but this trick that worked quite effectively during the sixties no longer works today. Not even among a good portion of the same inhabitants of the Kingdom, according to the latest political developments which have seen the drop in support for the conservative party leader Theresa May.

Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains a fundamentally conservative reality, not coincidentally led from above by a figure as symbolic as influential: Queen Elizabeth II, born in 1926 and in office since February 6, 1952. In any case, she's far from abdicating and leaving the throne to her son Charles, Prince of Wales. Born in 1948...

John Creasey was an English author and writer of mysteries and science fiction novels. Born in Southfields in 1908, he was also very active in politics, particularly during the sixties, the same period in which this short 1962 science fiction novel is set titled 'The Terror: The Return of Dr. Palfrey' or simply 'The Terror'....

The Italian title is instead much more simply: 'Terrore su Londra'. A translation that, in this case, fits and is coherent with the story's content, which revolves around an 'international case' but where the primary involved characters, both in the conspiracy and in the attempt to thwart what could be the beginning of a severe global crisis, are located and act in the city of London.

We are in the midst of the Cold War, and in Russia, the USA, and England, at the operational center of the control of atomic weapons and nuclear energy, and the space control of the S.E.I. (Supreme International Entity), chaired by Dr. Palfrey, an unidentified flying object equipped with atomic weapons is detected at a distance less than that between the Earth and the Moon and heading towards an unspecified point on our planet.

The three international powers involved deny being the cause of this 'atomic' threat and decide to collectively work toward a solution to this problem. Thus, the American Arnold Kilbee from the Cape Canaveral base and the Russian Boris Gregaroff from a base in the Urals arrive in London. They immediately make themselves available to Dr. Palfrey, a recurring character in John Creasey’s works who takes on the role of guide and command of operations and who, even though he is English, operates independently of his own government and in the interest of safeguarding international balance.

After initial distrust, the rivalry between Kilbee and Gregaroff is handled with a certain irony, as if parodying certain espionage works. All parties involved decide to collaborate in an operation that more than dealing with science fiction, effectively becomes a real investigation. Linking the novel to the spy-story genre is therefore not wrong: the premises of the genre are present, as well as a certain sobriety in style. It must be remembered, though, that John Creasey, even endowed with a typically Anglo-Saxon humor, was born in 1908 and, as a man of his time, uses a language far from the more colloquial and more formal language we are used to.

The nuclear threat will nonetheless soon prove real when facts follow the threats: on the city of London, a genuine 'simulation' of an atomic explosion occurs. Essentially, an event with all the characteristics of a nuclear explosion but without the physical effects and the damage from radiation or harmful effects.

Initially, it might seem that one of the two major powers has betrayed, but Dr. Palfrey will discover that the truth lies in the heart and contradictions of Great Britain itself, where a transversal plot is underway. This plot, which a more savvy reader today compared to those of the time, might even find simplistic, would have deserved to be discussed in its deeper reasons but instead, due to editorial limitations or simple disinterest, are only hinted at.

However, it would be unfair to negatively judge this novel, which should instead be contextualized to the reality of its time: a sci-fi themed spy-story where the 'villain' is not necessarily on one side of the curtain, and where Great Britain seems to be the point of balance between different international tensions. A role the British have never effectively taken on and which, by leaving the EU, they have indeed abdicated forever. At least for now.