Ted Allbeury’s Spy Classic THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY Republished Today

Hodder & Stoughton are publishing a new edition of Ted Allbeury’s Cold War conspiracy thriller THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY today in paperback, as well as the first unabridged audiobook of the novel. First published in 1980, the period in which the spy classic is set, THE TWENTHIETH DAY OF JANUARY explores the consequences of a presidential campaign influenced by Russian forces. Its reissue is set 'to coincide with the current political climate'.

What if the Soviet Union gained control over the US Presidency?

SIS agent James Mackay fears that this may already be happening when he realises the newly elected president's press secretary is a former communist radical with links to the KGB.

When the witnesses who support his suspicions are systematically eliminated, MacKay must race against time to prove that the President-Elect is not his own man before Inauguration Day and avoid a national catastrophe.

THE TWENTIETH DAY was re-published in the US last year by Dover Editions.

Ted Allbeury was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the UK Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later an executive in marketing, advertising and radio. He began his writing career in the early 1970s and became well known for his espionage novels, but also published one general novel, THE CHOICE, and a short story collection, OTHER KINDS OF TREASON. His novels have been published in twenty-three languages, including Russian. He died in 2005. 

Praise for Ted Allbeury

‘No one since le Carré has mapped the lonely lunar landscape of espionage better than Allbeury.’ – Observer

'The doyen of contemporary spy writers.' – Daily Telegraph

‘The most consistently inventive of our novelists of espionage, the one that other thriller writers point to as the finest craftsman among them.’ – The Guardian

'Certain things are constants, and Ted Allbeury is one. Book after book, the prolific British writer of espionage tales has maintained a superior level.' – New York Times

‘No one picks through the intelligence maze with more authority or humanity than Allbeury.’ – The Sunday Times

Hodder to Re-issue Cold War Classic, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY

Hodder will re-issue Ted Allbeury's classic spy novel, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY.

Set in 1980, Ted Allbeury's THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY imagines Russia meddling in the election of a wealthy businessman to the US Presidency.

Hodder & Stoughton says the reissuing of the thriller next January is 'to coincide with the current political climate' and summarises the book accordingly: 'It’s 1980. The Cold War is at its height. Out of nowhere, wealthy businessman, Logan Powell, has become President-elect and is only weeks away from being sworn in to the most powerful position in the world. Meanwhile, British Intelligence has discovered that the Russians may have been involved in the election result.' 

Hodder & Stoughton audio editorial director Dominic Gribben said: "Ted Allbeury was one of the most consistently excellent and impressively prolific espionage fiction authors of the Cold War period and beyond. He deserves to be read more widely today." The publisher has also acquired UK and Commonwealth audio rights, from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann, and will publish for the first time as an unabridged audiobook alongside the paperback reissue. THE TWENTIETH DAY was re-published in the US this year by Dover Editions.

Allbeury was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the UK Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later an executive in marketing, advertising and radio. He began his writing career in the early 1970s and became well known for his espionage novels, but also published one general novel, The Choice, and a short story collection, Other Kinds of Treason. His novels have been published in twenty-three languages, including Russian. He died in 2005. 

Author Deon Meyer says: "I discovered Ted Allbeury when I was about 15 years old. I am re-reading him now for the first time in 40 years and the amazing thing is that that the writing has not aged. He is still as smooth and as great a storyteller now as when I experienced him at 15. The Cold War was a fascinating time. Now with Russia showing aggression, it has become very topical again."

Mulholland Books Reissue Entire Ted Allbeury Backlist

Hodder & Stoughton are happy to announce the publication of the complete backlist of bestselling thriller writer Ted Allbeury on the Mulholland UK imprint. BCN inc Can rights were acquired in 42 titles from Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann. 

Ted Allbeury was a lieutenant-colonel in the Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later a successful executive in the fields of marketing, advertising and radio. He began his writing career in the early 1970s and became well known for his espionage novels, but also published one highly praised general novel, THE CHOICE, and a short story collection, OTHER KINDS OF TREASON. His novels have been published in twenty-three languages. He died on 4th December 2005.

Editor Dominic Gribben said: ‘I’m thrilled that we’ll be making Ted’s work available again, both to his existing fans and to a new generation of thriller readers who have yet to discover him. He truly was a master of his craft.’

Contemporary and friend Len Deighton said: ‘When I say Ted Allbeury knows where the bodies are buried I mean it literally. Armed only with German conversational skills learned at the Berlitz School, he was the only Englishman dropped by parachute into Germany during the war. That he survived is a measure of his brains, skills and tough determination.

‘After the war he made many illegal border crossing until things went wrong and Ted was left in a German farmhouse with his hands nailed to a kitchen table. His own people found him before he bled to death; the other side know how to do these things. It was a warning and it worked: Ted retired and became a very fine writer. He had done enough.

‘A normally tacit man he said I had squeezed these memories out of him. Well, that's what research is all about - but this seems the right time to break my silence.”

EBook editions of A Choice of Enemies, Snowball, The Judas Factor, Palomino Blonde and The Special Collection will be published on November 14th. All forty-two will be available by mid-2014.

For more information visit www.hodder.co.uk/Authors/Ted+Allbeury and sign up to the Hodder & Stoughton crime and thriller community newsletter at www.crime-lines.co.uk.
 

For further information please contact:

Veronique Norton, Hodder & Stoughton Press Office

020 7873 6174 Veronique.Norton@hodder.co.uk