Help identifying Christopher Priest novel please...

[BruceM]

Hello,

Years ago, I read a haunting novel by Christopher Priest. It was set in Britain, and the one thing I remember about the plot was that ALL media content (TV & newspapers) was closely vetted by some shady (government?) agency before being allowed to be seen by the public.

I've looked closely at Priest's bibliography, and checked the book summaries on various sites, but none seems to match my memory. Any ideas? (It was 1990s or earlier, I think).

Many thanks,
Bruce

 

[mellotronman]

Might this be 'Fugue for a Darkening Island'? It portrays an authoritarian, right-wing government, so media censorship seems likely. It's a rare example of a novel I gave up on first time round (many years ago), but I'm going to give it another go.

 

[The Judge]

I'd have thought if it was Fugue, what the OP would recall wouldn't be any censorship (if such there is in there), but the civil war conflicts with the Afrim refugees.

 

[BruceM]

Thanks for those replies. When I checked the book descriptions, 'Fugue for a Darkening Island' did seem the closest to what I remember (at a bit of a stretch, admittedly - although memory does distort things) - so I'll check it more closely (ie read it!). Thanks again -- Bruce.

 

[mellotronman]

Funny thing is, we remember the oddest things about books. I recently read Niven/Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye for the first time in over thirty years. I remembered one tiny detail perfectly and another scene vaguely, although I hadn't connected the second one with the book. I remembered precisely nothing about the Moties, their society or anything else, which is why I'm having such trouble tracking down a couple of things myself!

 

[KGeo777]

I just heard about this book after seeing some intriguing covers.