morally as m h 2: .:r wall wrll f:: rfmllt f:"a:r something morally as difficult and dangerous as the launching of the nuclear strike itself. get aat the heart of this book is a series of these moral dilemmas for the players involved. the president himself is more or less offstage for most of the novel. this is about the people who serve him and the dilemmas they wrestle with. there's one at the very beginning. kenny swart a presidential order? —— can use the wart? even the dilemma amongst the people who work for him. they begin to conclude that the man who has taken an oath to serve is a menace to the world. they begin to wrestle with where responsibility lies in that situation. is it your ability to serve the commander in chief or, if you have concluded he is a danger to the world, seek to remove him and explore the legal avenues? in a

sense we have been there before with the nixon presidency. it was about removing him from power. there was a question raised among some of those around him as to whether his travails and horror of the position he was in had unbalanced him. if it had, was that anything anyone could do about it? absolutely right. characters themselves referred to nixon and the madman strategy that this is where he deputed henry kissinger to go around the world that saying to world leaders quite nixon he is crazy enough to do this. he believed leaders would fear him more and accommodate him with peace in vietnam and that kind of think as iam glad in vietnam and that kind of think as i am glad you mentioned him because he comes from that era, the early 70s, where not only was nixon and watergate going on, it spawned the political thriller. i did not have a role in this but the cover is

absolutely a 70s era cover design. it could be day of the jackal or day of the condor. it was when people we re of the condor. it was when people were ready to believe the president was a danger and buy into those scenarios. some people will think that by looking at the book, looking at the cover, or reading it, this is at the cover, or reading it, this is a bit rich but you cannot bear donald trump, so you have written a book, portraying him, albeit through an unnamed president in these pages, as somebody who was about to blow up the world if you believe that, put your name on it. donald friedman is denouncing trump in the column i write as a newspaperjournalist. this was a different issue i wanted to wrestle with. the question, but what if question. all thriller writers will say the two most useful

words are what if. you take what is going on in the real world and you knock it on the stage. the what if me was, what if you certainly like that and you are self, not the hostile guardian journalist, but you yourself, the loyal member of the president's party, came to conclude he was dangerous. i was pleased that a couple of critics have compared it with the day of the jackal. i think there is a sub genre that does this. to me, the reality in this novel are separate. they may be separate. the key to a novel like this, you mentioned day of the jackal, three days of the condor, science —— people have to believe it. what is

interesting in getting reading reaction, is the idea that this seems plausible. the danger is sought of... the stakes that are in their mind as a reader are because they look at the real world and they think a scenario not the same as this, not identical to this, is plausible. one of the big surprises that have confronted you and me as journalists this year's they have made all kind of scenarios that would once have seen fantastical now seem plausible. it means readers are able to regard a story like this as plausible because the real world is throwing up fantastical things all the time. thank you very much. hello. we have seen soaring temperatures today, close to the record for august bank holiday monday. a

good day to be on the beach. swanage in dorset, lovely blue skies. higher temperatures were inland in the sunshine. 28 degrees towards the wash. contrast that with mere 18. still producing rain and drizzle. that is sinking south. behind it clearer skies, cooler and fresh air. not much rain with that band of cloud but a significant difference north and south. extreme or 17 after the heat of today. the rain trickles southwards. not much rain but a fair bit of cloud. still some sunshine across east anglia and the south east. any showers in kent are moving away. some sunshine arriving in the far north of england, also across northern ireland and scotland. a few showers in the coastal areas will

stop the showers will drift away further inland across scotland and northern ireland during the day. probably dry at headingley. a very different look to the weather. more cloud around. the cloud should break during the evening session if we get that far. this band of cloud moving slowly south. not much rain on it. much cloudier picture all the way from the south—west of england towards lincolnshire where we have had the heat today. showers in the north—west. temperatures i6,. still warms towards southeast and east anglia. perhaps 26, 20 seven. even the heat and dry weather will come to an end on wednesday. we have two areas of low pressure and two whether systems converging on england for that this band of rain probably tending to peter out through the day. the wettest weather arriving across east anglia and the south of england. that will drop the energy is quite significant the wednesday. the wetter weather should

be pushed out of the way towards the end of the week and broadly thursday and friday will be a mixture of sunshine, a scattering of showers and temperatures a bit below par for this time of year. this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 7pm: ordered to leave their homes as tropical storm harvey continues to [ash the us state of texas. thousands have been rescued, including residents in a care home. she said within 10—15 minutes, the water went from ankle high to waist high. so, immediately they were under and floating. —— they were underwater. another round of brexit talks get under way in brussels, as britain asks for flexibility and imagination. we want to lock in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree... in order to do that, we require flexibility and imagination on both sides. a lorry driver is charged with 20 counts of drink—driving and dangerous driving in connection with saturday's minibus crash on the mi. german prosecutors say a nurse

who is serving a life sentence for murdering two patients may have killed 84 others.